A sandcastle is easily destroyed by the waves. It only takes a few sand pails and an afternoon to rebuild it.
Hurricane winds, storm surge and flood waters often come crashing down upon the Gulf Coast. This causes beach homes to collapse, crack asphalt and erode the shoreline. It can take years of work, millions, or even billions of dollars to rebuild.
Despite the fact that they know it could all be destroyed by the next major storm, communities continue to rebuild condos and beach homes, resorts, shops, and even shorelines.
Rob Young has spent years trying to break the vicious circle.
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Young, a professor at Western Carolina University of coastal geology, said that the biggest problem is that too much stuff is still in danger.”If I could get a community, it would be to not put anything else where it is immediately exposed to the next flood or storm. Although it may seem very simple, it’s extremely difficult for communities.
Young is the director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines. This program studies the effects of storms, sea level rise, and climate change on coastal cities. It advocates for responsible strategies that promote the long-term sustainability of the nation’s coastal ecosystems.
Young will be attending CivicCon Pensacola, May 9th, to discuss what coastal cities should do to prepare themselves for the future while maintaining balance between economic and environmental interests.
Young stated that the center’s mission is to “… do basic scientific research about coastal processes:coastal hurricane impacts, rising sea levels, general coastal management issues and coastal restoration efforts.” Young spoke to the News Journal in late April.
“So, we do science. But then, what makes us kind of unusual is that our mission statement states that the primary mission of the center’s mission is to communicate science to decision-makers at all levels. That includes property owners as individuals, associations of property owners, municipalities, counties, states, federal governments, and even local governments. … We really try to make sure that people have the information necessary to make science-based decisions.
Young was part of a project that mapped and evaluated the vulnerability of every coastal National Park Service asset in the U.S., from the Statue of Liberty, New York, to remote roads in Alaska, to the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This helped park managers decide what should remain, what should go, and what should move further inland.
The research assesses an asset’s vulnerability to factors like coastal erosion, sea-level rise, flooding, and overland flooding to determine its “exposure”, and “vulnerability.” Exposure is the amount of water that will reach the area being studied, while vulnerability is the extent to which the water can get there.
Young said that from a scientific perspective, this part of work is fairly straightforward.
Young stated that the tricky part is when you begin to consider questions about community vulnerability and how federal and state funding gets into a community.
Young stated that while federal and local governments spend a lot of money on resilience and addressing vulnerability, the process is extremely political and lacks an overarching plan.
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Young stated, “Resilience is a buzzword right at the moment, because it can mean anything.””We still have localities who are building in floodplains, increasing the density in floodplain development, putting more homes and roads in areas that could be impacted next storm, but they’re not penalized for making poor choices.
Young stated that in many cases they are encouraged to make the wrong decisions.
Young said that “the way we decide to spend resiliencemoney money in the United States, that’s money that’s spent on the Army Corps of Engineersfor instance, is that they do an economic analysis where they need a lot of bang-for-the-buck.”Young stated that the Corps’s economic analysis is biased in favor of protecting expensive infrastructure, and against single-family homespeople who are working-class, blue-collar, or minority communities. It’s a built-in feature of their economic analysis.
He pointed to the 30A neighborhood in southern Walton County, as an example of the phenomenon. He was also shocked to see how many $10 million homes were being built right up against the dunes.
He stated that if they ever attempt to pursue a federally funded federal beachrenourishment program, they will have a better chance of obtaining it even though they are the problem. This is because they will be protecting multimillion dollar homes, instead of homes that cost $500,00 or $600,000.
Young stated, “The federal governments spend a tremendous amount money pumping sand in front communities to try to protect those property value. We sort of reverse that. We spend very little money trying the reduce the damage in these communities when you move inland from it. The Corps will tell you again that homes that cost $200,00 or $300,000. each don’t have a benefit cost analysis.
It is not surprising that the U.S., Florida especially, has a stubborn tradition of rebuilding on vulnerable beachfront plots. But the question is whether this approach is sustainable.
Young stated that “it’s gonna come up someday because right now honestly, we’re really trying t hold every shoreline of the U.S.inplaceby pumping in Sand everything fromSouthern ME to Padre Island Texaswithbeach nourishment projects.” “We can’t afford to do that forever. There won’t even be enough sand for it forever. This bubble will burst at some point.
Young laughed and said that despite the dour warnings he makes, he is a positive person who believes there is a way forward.
“There are many ways to approach this, I believe. He stated that federal coastal protection projects need to be reformed in terms of benefit cost analysis. “As Americans we value more that the cost of individual houses. It’s more than that. It should not be about just saving and protecting property. It should also be about community structure, cultural heritage, diversity, fairness and fairness. I hope we can all agree that this is true. You shouldn’t be able get the most federal dollars just because you have the highest property value.
Young will present at CivicCon, a free presentation that is open to all. Young will discuss how communities can achieve sustainability and resilience while still achieving economic growth and success.
The event will take places at 6 to 7 p.m. on May 9, at The REX Theatre, 18 N. Palafox St. Pensacola.Register nowSearch for “CivicCon”, at eventbrite.com
CivicCon is a partnership between the Pensacola News Journal & the Studer Community Institute. It aims to make our community a better area to live, work, and invest through smart planning, civic conversation, and to improve the quality of life.
For more information about CivicCon, visitpnj.com/civiccon.
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