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186 assessment of climate change in the southwest united statesFigure 9.8 Coastal armoring in Southern California. One-third of the shoreline of SouthernCalifornia (including Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties) has now been armored. Thephoto shows the shoreline in 2010 in Encinitas, in northern San Diego County. Photo courtesy of Kennethand Gabrielle Adelman of the California Coastal Records Project (http://www.californiacoastline.org/).Finally, a variety of adaptation measures focus on reducing long-term exposure tothe risks associated with climate change and coastal hazards. Such measures might takethe form of planned retreat from the shoreline, but might also include the restorationof natural coastal buffers, such as dunes and wetlands. Of particular value are strategiesand policies that incorporate natural resource values and management (CaliforniaCoastal Act 1976; UNCBD 2009). Such ecosystem-based adaptation is an approach thatsimultaneously builds ecological resilience and reduces the vulnerability of both humanand natural communities to climate change. iv It is based on the premise that sustainablymanaged ecosystems can provide social, economic, and environmental benefits, both directlythrough the preservation of innately valuable biological resources and indirectlythrough the protection of ecosystem services that these resources provide humans (Coll,Ash, and Ikkala 2009; World Bank 2010).Level of preparedness and engagement in adaptation planningA 2005 survey of California coastal counties and communities assessed coastal managers’awareness of the risks associated with climate change and the degree to which theyhad begun preparing for, planning for, and actively managing these risks in their coastalmanagement activities (Moser 2007; Moser and Tribbia 2007). The vast majority of surveyedcoastal managers were of the opinion that climate change is real and is already