Helping Coastal Communities Adapt to Climate Change

Abstract

"Coastal communities and decision makers urgently need to develop pragmatic, cost-effective strategies to protect both natural and human communities from the dramatic changes that are already underway due to climate change. Yet they lack both the information needed to plan and the enabling conditions needed to implement such strategies. This needs to change. If, in a rush to 'defend the coast,' the potential value and role of coastal ecosystems--'natures green infrastructure---are overlooked, we risk a future deprived of the ecosystem services that coastal ecosystems provide, including food, water, recreation, and shoreline protection."