Coastal Change, Ocean Conservation and Resilient Communities

Concerns about climate change and rising ocean levels have lead planners in coastal cities around the world to look for ideas, information, and design solutions to help them adapt to changing conditions. While some dramatic but hugely intrusive and environmentally disruptive ideas have been considered, we hope to offer practical and inspiring ideas for ways to evolve coastal settlements so that they are integrated with nature, rebuild some of the former ecosystem services lost from our shores, and support ocean species beyond ourselves. ? Worldwide, coastal cities are due for big change, shifting their relationship with the waterfront. It is predicted that rising ocean levels, more frequent storms, and the surge of floodwater will inundate shoreline development permanently or recurrently, requiring habitation by the sea to be adapted in new ways. Many times in the past, human societies have lived in places where rapid environmental changes led to innovation and prosperity or to the abandonment of settlements, some of which are now under water. ? In the search for inventive and straightforward ways to weather a changing climate while protecting and enhancing nature's ecosystem services, the work will highlight ancient responses and contemporary innovations that can be applied to coastal development today. The editors have curated a targeted selection of works contributed by leading practitioners in the fields of coastal science, habitat restoration, sustainable landscape construction, architectural adaptation, and floodplain management. The book will explore a range of strategies for waterfront living by human cultures, from the prehistoric to the imagined future, detailing the pros and cons of each and educating the reader on best practices for development along the waterfront. ? The terms sustainable and resilient are widely used, but what do they really imply? Cohabitation is the more poignant term, in that humans share the waterward edge with many other species, who are feeding in salt marshes, or burying their eggs along sandy beaches, flying south along the Atlantic Flyway, or attaching themselves to an oyster reef. The book will showcase engineered adaptations to dynamic shore environments, but within the local and regional ecological context of specific metropolitan areas.?