Figuring Out the Economics and Finances of Coastal Climate Change Adaptation

Brought to you by the EBM Tools Network

There are scores of resources for helping coastal planners gauge potential climate change impacts to natural resources and communities (e.g. www.natureserve.org/climatetoolsguide). Resources for gauging the economic/financial aspects of climate change adaptation actions (as opposed to climate change impacts themselves) are much rarer. There are very few software tools that deal with the costs and benefits of different adaptation options, but the EBM Tools Network (www.ebmtools.org) has found one as well as a number of other great resources on this topic:

Tools:

• Coastal Adaptation to Sea Level Rise Tool (COAST; www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/COAST.php)
  
  • View an introductory webinar: www.openchannels.org/webinars/2013/webinar-demonstration-coast-coastal-adaptation-sea-level-rise-tool

Reports:

• What Will Adaptation Cost? An Economic Framework for Coastal Community Infrastructure (www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/publications/adaptation)
  
  • View an introductory webinar: www.openchannels.org/webinars/2013/what-will-adaptation-cost-economic-framework-coastal-community-infrastructure
• Putting a Price Tag On Adaptation: Quantifying The Financial Value Of Ecosystem Services In Relation To Climate Change Adaption (ACES conference session: www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aces12/presentations.html, Session 8F, Thursday, 1:30 pm)
  
  • View a related webinar: www.openchannels.org/webinars/2014/valuing-ecosystem-services-face-climate-change-north-carolina-and-hawaii
• The Horizontal Levee: Nature’s Low-Cost Defense Against Sea Level Rise (http://bay.org/bay-restoration/the-horizontal-levee)
• Evaluation of Erosion Mitigation Alternatives for Southern Monterey Bay (http://montereybay.noaa.gov/research/techreports/tresapwa2012.html)
• Economic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Hazards and Climate Change: Building Resilience in the Barnegat Bay Region (http://bbp.ocean.edu/Reports/Leichenko-March2013_FinalReport%20with%20logos.pdf)
• The Challenge of Mitigating Virginia’s Flooding and Sea Level Rise Impacts (www.wetlandswatch.org/Portals/3/WW%20documents/sea-level-rise/ww_flood_white-paper1-1.pdf)

Journal Publications:

• The economics of adaptation along developed coastlines (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.90/full)
• Climate change and coastal flooding in Metro Boston: impacts and adaptation strategies (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-008-9398-9#page-1)
• Vulnerability and adaptation of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification (www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n3/abs/nclimate2508.html)
• Funding climate adaptation strategies with climate derivatives (www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221209631500011X)
• Simplified method for scenario-based risk assessment adaptation planning in the coastal zone (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-011-0379-z#page-1)
• Risks of sea level rise to disadvantaged communities in the United States (www.springerlink.com/content/x411112212347762)

Many thanks to the EBM Tools Network members who provided these resources!