The California Coast and Living Shorelines—A Critical Look

Abstract

California and most other coastlines around the world are being impacted by both long-term sea-level rise and short-term extreme events. Due to California’s long and intensively developed coastline, it is an important area for evaluating responses to these challenges. The predominant historic approach to coastal erosion in California and globally has been the construction of hard coastal armoring such as seawalls and rock revetments. The concept of living shorelines—defined as using natural elements like plants, sand, or rocks to stabilize the coastline—has been widely proposed as a soft or green response to coastal erosion and flooding. However, these approaches have very limited application in high-energy environments such as California’s 1100-mile-long outer coast and are not realistic solutions for protection from wave attack at high tides or long-term sea-level rise. Each of the state’s coastal communities need to identify their most vulnerable areas, develop adaptation plans, and plan eventual relocation strategies in response to an accelerating sea-level rise.