Coastlines, Coastal Cities, and Climate Change: A Perspective on Urgent Research Needs in the United States

Paul A Sandifer,Geoffrey I Scott

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.631986

Paul A Sandifer, Geoffrey I Scott

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.631986

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Abstract

This paper builds upon Friedman et al. (2020) and other reviews and statements but provides an explicit focus on research needed to improve the resilience and survivability of coastal communities as they face existential threats from climate change. It does not attempt a prescriptive analysis of potential research emphases, but instead recommends some key research areas that we believe will help provide a solid foundation for community adaptation. Our perspective is based on our experiences over a combined nearly 95 years of work in research, management, and policy, much of it related to coastal environments and their communities, rather than expert deliberation within a large group or a systematic review. We present a list of 25 research priorities binned into 12 categories and targeted to leaders of coastal communities, interested researchers, funders, students, and the public. These priorities are intended to help start more discussion of research needs with and within communities, and help focus attention of researchers on actions that have potential to identify critical decision points and make positive differences for communities. We conclude that priority research should be undertaken with urgency and a much greater level of trans- and interdisciplinarity and community-participatory approaches than yet seen.

Highlights

Coastal lands and waters are where the greatest number of people, very high levels of investment in built infrastructure, and perhaps the most ecological resources are in danger from global climate change
Many coastal areas are already seeing increasing negative effects of climate change, especially from sea level rise (Sweet et al, 2019; Sinay and Carter, 2020), and more coastal communities are expected to be impacted in the future (Neumann et al, 2015)
Climate change is recognized as an existential threat to many coastal cities and communities as they grapple with rapidly increasing flooding, more frequent and intense storms, saltwater intrusion, and other issues directly related to climate change

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Coastal lands and waters are where the greatest number of people, very high levels of investment in built infrastructure, and perhaps the most ecological resources are in danger from global climate change. The research priorities and questions included here were influenced by the work of Friedman et al (2020) as noted, and by other researchers as cited, but our perspective, choices, wording, and additions reflect important differences based on our combined ∼95 years of experience in research, management, and policy Target audiences for these recommendations include municipal, county, state, and other officials and practitioners charged with development and implementation of plans and policies to deal with climate change effects on their communities; natural and social science researchers from numerous disciplines who are committed to working together to provide actionable information to community leaders; public and philanthropic funding entities at international, federal, state, and local levels; and interested members of the public. Community-applicable research will need to take into account regional and local contexts that may differ considerably from one area to another

DISCUSSION

Findings

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT