School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2022 Aug 23;10:e13463. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13463. eCollection 2022.
Coastal habitats, such as salt marshes and dune systems, can protect communities from hazards by reducing coastline exposure. However, these critical habitats and their diverse ecosystem services are threatened by coastal development and the impacts from a changing climate. Ever increasing pressure on coastal habitats calls for coastal climate adaptation efforts that mitigate or adapt to these pressures in ways that maintain the integrity of coastal landscapes. An important challenge for decisionmakers is determining the best mitigation and adaptation strategies that not only protect human lives and property, but also safeguard the ability of coastal habitats to provide a broad suite of benefits. Here, we present a potential pathway for local-scale climate change adaptation planning through the identification and mapping of natural habitats that provide the greatest benefits to coastal communities. The methodology coupled a coastal vulnerability model with a climate adaptation policy assessment in an effort to identify priority locations for nature-based solutions that reduce vulnerability of critical assets using feasible land-use policy methods. Our results demonstrate the critical role of natural habitats in providing the ecosystem service of coastal protection in California. We found that specific dune habitats play a key role in reducing erosion and inundation of the coastline and that several wetland areas help to absorb energy from storms and provide a protective service for the coast of Marin county, California, USA. Climate change and adaptation planning are globally relevant issues in which the scalability and transferability of solutions must be considered. This work outlines an iterative approach for climate adaptation planning at a local-scale, with opportunity to consider the scalability of an iterative science-policy engagement approach to regional, national, and international levels.
沿海栖息地，如盐沼和沙丘系统，可以通过减少海岸线暴露来保护社区免受危害。然而，这些关键的栖息地及其多样化的生态系统服务正受到沿海开发和气候变化影响的威胁。对沿海栖息地的压力不断增加，要求采取沿海气候适应措施，以减轻或适应这些压力，同时保持沿海景观的完整性。决策者面临的一个重要挑战是确定最佳的缓解和适应策略，这些策略不仅要保护人类的生命和财产，还要保护沿海栖息地提供广泛生态系统服务的能力。在这里，我们通过确定和绘制为沿海社区提供最大利益的自然栖息地，提出了一种地方尺度气候变化适应规划的潜在途径。该方法将沿海脆弱性模型与气候适应政策评估相结合，努力确定基于自然的解决方案的优先地点，这些解决方案使用可行的土地利用政策方法减少关键资产的脆弱性。我们的研究结果表明，自然栖息地在为加利福尼亚沿海地区提供沿海保护生态系统服务方面发挥着至关重要的作用。我们发现，特定的沙丘栖息地在减少海岸线侵蚀和淹没方面发挥着关键作用，而几个湿地地区有助于吸收风暴能量，并为美国加利福尼亚州马林县的海岸提供保护服务。气候变化和适应规划是全球性的相关问题，必须考虑解决方案的可扩展性和可转移性。这项工作概述了一种地方尺度气候适应规划的迭代方法，有机会考虑到迭代科学政策参与方法在区域、国家和国际层面的可扩展性。
