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

Adaptation and Mitigation 113al., 2011). Such systematic assessments will be essential to supporting informed tool selectionby potential users (NRC, 2009).Although specifics vary, most guidance on tool selection centers on roughly the samecore idea: the importance of selecting tools based on an assessment of user goals, objectives,context, resources, and skills rather than trying to make management or researchproblems fit within the framework of a previously selected tool. Commonly expressedconcerns are that users will select inappropriate tools based on what sounds impressive,seems easy, or has been used by others they know (for example, using a rankingtool when the management question is how to reduce the vulnerability of a particularspecies), or will seek or put too much emphasis on projections for species distributionchanges or similar ecological shifts when data are insufficient to support such analyses.These problems clearly occur; what is unclear is how common they are and how muchtime is wasted, both of which could lead to poor decision-making. Further, no clearthreshold has been established for when data or analyses are too limited or flawed to bevalid; increasing guidance on how to decide when available data cannot support the desiredtool or what caveats must be included with the outputs would be extremely useful.Another commonly expressed concern relates to the need to provide support andguidance for decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Tools can be designedand used to facilitate and improve vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning regardlessof gaps or flaws in the data (NRC, 2009). By using a variety of tools or runningthem multiple times with a range of different parameters such as sea-level-rise rates,exploring a range of plausible future scenarios is possible. Formal or informal sensitivityanalyses can help to identify the variables with the largest uncertainty as well as thosevariable that have the greatest influence on the decisions at hand or, for purely scientificendeavors, the variables with the greatest influence on the system under consideration(Stralberg et al., 2011).Policy and Regulatory ToolsPolicy options for adapting to climate change include both a broad array of governmentalauthorities and a range of possible pathways. The governmental activities includeregulatory, taxation, planning, spending, and the general facilitation of private action(Grannis, 2011). The possible pathways include protecting existing land uses from thesea, which includes shoreline armoring; relocating human activities through retreat; andmodifying human activities to enhance adaptive natural capacity of ecosystems by reducingstressors).Governments are evaluating how to factor climate change into spending decisionsto conserve public funds over the long-term and ensure that public assets such as roadwaysand wastewater treatment facilities are resilient. Maryland’s plan recognizes thatpublic investments in shore protection will be needed to protect critical facilities. Otherstates, such as California, are examining how they can direct funding to protect coastalresources to acquire vulnerable lands for conservation, to provide room for ecosystemsto migrate inland to keep pace with sea-level rise, to provide a buffer for infrastructure,and to buy out vulnerable property owners.Governments are also re-evaluating how they regulate coastal areas. Regulatoryoptions include using zoning powers to require additional setbacks from shorelines,