NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Climate Change Adaptation Challenges:
Maintaining Ecosystem Services in Shoreline
Management
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Shoreline and Shore Zone
• Shoreline: the line that separates the water from the land
• Shore zone: the region closely adjoining the shoreline in which strong and direct interactions tightly link the terrestrial ecosystem to the aquatic ecosystem, and vice versa
Dave Strayer. 2008. Ecology of freshwater shore zones, unpublished.
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Ecosystem Services
• The benefits provided to humans by naturally functioning ecosystems
• Nature’s contributions to human well-being
See February 2009 issue of Ecological Society of America’s Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
General Ecosystem Services of Shorelines
• Provide vital habitat • Dissipate energy• Process nutrients and
regulate other vital processes• Serve as dispersal corridors• Support high biodiversity and
produce plants and animals
Dave Strayer. 2008. Ecology of freshwater shore zones, unpublished.
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Human Effects on Ecological Functioning of Shore Zones
• Compress & stabilize shore zone• Change hydrologic regimes• Shorten & simplify, harden, and tidy
shorelines• Increase inputs of physical energy that
impinge on shorelines• Intensively develop shore zones• Introduce invasive species…
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
What’s at Stake?
7,000+ acres of tidal wetlands
6,000 acres of vegetated shallows
300+ miles of shoreline
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
A New Era: Climate Change Is Increasing Erosive Forces • Wind • Waves & wakes• Tidal action • Ice • Human disturbance
• Accelerated sea level rise
• Increased storm intensity due to climate change?
• Increased storm surge
• Increased flooding
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
How will we manage shorelines & erosion in
the future? • Harden to reduce
erosion?• Construct dikes?• Use “soft”
engineering approaches?
• Allow shorelines to migrate landward?
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Hudson River Tidal Shorelines
• Over 300 miles:– Natural 47%– Hard engineered 41%– Remnant engineered
12%
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Goals of Shoreline Initiative
• Determine tradeoffs in “ecosystem services”
• Determine costs of different erosion control approaches in the context of 50 to 100-year sea level rise
• Transfer new knowledge and tools to relevant stakeholders
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Key Challenges
1. Develop sufficient scientific knowledge to back up our hypotheses of how and when services are delivered
2. Develop practical ways to bring these ideas into business practices and government policies.
Susan Ruffo, Peter M Kareiva (2009). Using science to assign value to nature. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 3-3
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Goal 1:Tradeoffs in ecosystem services
are better understood• Research conducted by Cary IES and Hudson
River NERR scientists• Evaluated and compared ecological functions of
3 natural and 3 engineered shoreline types• Examined fish and invertebrate production,
as well as other ecosystem services
Funded by Hudson River Foundation, NYS DEC & NOAA/CICEET
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Developing scientific info about ecological services
of Hudson River tidal shorelines
• Initial phase: 6 shoreline types: 3 natural, 3 engineered
• Examined fish and invertebrate production, as well as other ecosystem services
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Preliminary Results: Fish
• More fish on sandy, vegetated beaches (forage fish)
• Highest diversity on the most structurally complex shoreline types.
• Lowest fish abundance & diversity are on vertical shoreline types (vertical sheet pile and seawalls)
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Goal 2:Short and long-term costs of shoreline options are known
• Develop regional projections of flooding and storm surge
• Project performance of selected shore protection measures
• Identify plausible scenarios to assess likely human responses that may impact costs
• Calculate costs of erosion control methods most likely to be used and/or effective
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Identify alternativesto retain or enhance ecosystem
servicesChesapeake Bay – Living Shoreline
Treatments (http://www.vims.edu/features/research/living-shorelines.php
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Short and Long-term Cost Calculations
• Forecast erosion control performance in context of sea level rise scenarios
• Consider broad array of costs: – Capital and operating costs– Impacts on adjacent upland properties– Impacts on public uses– Impacts on ecosystem services
$$$
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Goal 3: New knowledge and tools are transferred to the right people
• Identify key stakeholders and their barriers & bridges
• Identify key decisions & points of entry
• Develop and implement a communications and outreach plan
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Stakeholders and Shoreline Decision-
Makers • Property owners• Experts and consultants• Government regulators• Policy and law makers
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Challenges• Technical challenges in ecosystem
studies, economic analyses, and outreach
• Complex array of incentives, disincentives, policies and other factors guide erosion control decisions
• Diverse stakeholders• Decision-makers often focus on
minimizing short-term costs• Climate change unknowns
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Link to Climate Change Adaptation Initiatives
• NYS Sea Level Rise Task Force
• Rising Waters
• Hudson Valley Climate Change Network
• NYS Ocean & Great Lakes Initiative
• NOAA initiatives
• Others, TBD
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Betsy BlairManager, Hudson River NERRManager, Hudson River Habitat Protection
Program NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation(845) 889-4745 [email protected]