Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...

70 Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilitiescoastal counties in terms of the erosion hazard (Boruff et al., 2005) throughout the U.S.based on physical process indicators such as tidal range, slope, shoreline erosion and accretionrates, and social vulnerability. The intersection of physical and social measureshighlighted the differences in relative vulnerability, with the Gulf Coast vulnerabilitymore reflective of social characteristics and the Pacific and Atlantic coast counties morereflective of physical attributes.Research demonstrates a paucity of multi-peril or multi-stressor vulnerability assessments.One of the most recent studies examined climate-sensitive hazards for thesouthern U.S. using drought, flooding, hurricane winds, and sea-level rise (Emrich &Cutter, 2011). The differential spatial impacts were determined as the intersection ofhazards and social vulnerability. Using a technique known as bivariate mapping, thestudy found counties with high levels of social vulnerability and multiple hazard exposure;these were designated as hotspots. Many of these are located in coastal counties inTexas, Louisiana, and Florida.4.3 Socio-economic Impacts and ImplicationsUrban CentersThe impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and other coastal communities exemplifiedthe disparities among how people of different racial and socio-economic groupsmight be affected differently by extreme weather events. Particular areas of disparityincluded: who lived in neighborhoods that were vulnerable to flooding, which groupswere evacuated during the flood, how different groups were treated during the evacuation,which neighborhoods belonging to which groups were rebuilt, and who was representedin the decision-making process (Mohai et al., 2009). Heberger and others (2009)also found that communities of color would be disproportionally impacted by coastalflooding in San Francisco Bay, CA. Research in East Boston, MA, (Douglas et al., 2012;Kirshen et al., 2012) found that recent, low income immigrants have few adaptation optionsbecause they are limited by economic, political, or social resources, but the participatoryresearch found that participants appeared to be empowered by the knowledgethey gained during the process and wanted to take action.Rosenzweig and others (2011) summarized potential storm-surge impacts on infrastructurein the New York City metro area under several scenarios of sea-level rise. Theseinclude flooding of thermal power plants, wastewater treatment plants, transit systemsand basements, and increased combined sewer overflows. They report on a range ofhard and soft adaptation strategies under the planning framework of Flexible AdaptationPathways, which is essentially a series of responses tied to changes in knowledgeof the climate and socio-economic conditions. They also propose the setting of ClimateProtection Levels for critical infrastructure; for instance, one proposal plans for 4 feet ofsea-level rise by 2080 with all critical infrastructure designed to be protected to this level.The San Francisco Bay area has 7 million people, 9 counties, and 46 cities along theshoreline. If sea level rises 55 inches, the new floodplain of the 100-year coastal stormsurge could potentially flood 270,000 people, over 90 percent of areas of airports, 20percent of areas of ports, and 28 percent of areas of water-related industry in addition tostressing public health, and flood wastewater treatment plants, rail lines, and beaches.