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

Vulnerability and Impacts on Human Development 89surge directly, illness and injury during emergency response, and mental health effectsduring and after an emergency evacuation or other extreme weather events. Longertermhealth implications include potential effects on mental health and food supply.Hurricanes and floods can lead to standing water and accumulated debris that createnew habitats for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying agents like rats or roaches thathumans had less exposure to and that were not abundant in that ecosystem before. Illnessalso increases in extreme situations in which local populations have to be housedin large, temporary-living spaces such as the Superdome during and after HurricaneKatrina. Existing water sanitation and hygiene systems are not generally designed toprovide clean water and handle waste under these circumstances. Given the chaos, disruption,dislocation, potential unemployment, and general uncertainty during extremeclimatic events, a potential longer-term impact is an increase in mental-health issuesassociated with natural disasters and other sources of dislocation, unemployment, orforced migration (Berry, 2010; Portier, 2010).After hurricanes and floods, a lack of confidence in fish and coastal food supply canaffect both health and economic interests. After Hurricane Katrina, consumers had ahard time believing that Gulf of Mexico seafood was safe to eat even though extensivesampling and chemical analysis showed that was the case (Hom et al., 2008). A lack ofconsumer confidence in fish and food from the sea, such as in the aftermath of HurricaneKatrina, has both human health and economic consequences (see Sandifer et al., 2012 formore details). Ensuring access to safe food supply from the sea necessitates establishingbaselines and trustworthy monitoring and evaluation and communication tools, especiallyas our habitats and ecosystems are impacted by more frequent or severe events.Indirect ImpactsWater-RELATED ILLNESS. Human-health risks include changes in the concentration,distribution, or virulence of pathogens, biological toxins, and chemical contaminantsin our coastal waters. These can directly impact recreational use; drinking-waterquality: the quantity and quality of the food supply from coastal waters and wetlands;the economic productivity and livelihoods of fisheries, tourism, and real estate; and aestheticand cultural use (Portier, 2010).Pathogens. The capacity of water sanitation and hygiene infrastructure is an importantdeterminant of climate-related human-health impacts; for example, combinedsewer overflows (CSOs) occur when rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrialwastewater that are collected in the same pipe overflow during heavy precipitation orstorm surge events. Runoff during CSOs can contain pathogen and chemical contaminantsthat end up directly in our coastal waters (Fong, 2010). In addition, livestock andagricultural feedlots are known sources of coastal pollution that directly affect coastalwater quality and recreational use. Water sanitation facilities are another source of pollutant.If the intensity of rainfall or flooding events are expected to increase, then coastalpollution from these sources can be expected to increase as well unless management andinfrastructure changes are made.Over 40 million Americans in approximately 772 cities rely on combined sewer systemsfor stormwater and snowpack runoff as well as untreated domestic and industrial