NEWS ARTICLES

Salt marsh restoration can mitigate flood risk and bolster community resilience to climate change in our local waterways, according to a recent study published in Nature by a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR).

Coastal communities face escalating risks from climate change, natural disasters, and the loss of coastal habitats, such as salt marshes, mangroves, and coral reefs, and the outlook is particularly dire for many of our most vulnerable communities. In response to these pressing issues, the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature program recently signed a 4-year, $2.75 million cooperative agreement. They aim to address these challenges with equitable, nature-based solutions.

"We are very much in a changed environment," said Mike Beck, director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "And we're not going to be able to rebuild back in the same places and in the same ways that we did before. We're going to have to think more clearly about how we design and where we put these."

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) approved a resolution on Oct. 26 that designates coral reefs along U.S. states and territories as national infrastructure. This resolution makes it easier to direct federal funding, particularly infrastructure, hazard mitigation, and disaster recovery monies, to reef conservation and restoration to protect people, property, and livelihoods.

The Coastal Climate Resilience Symposium held at the Seymour Center focused on integrating nature-based solutions into risk management and insurance.

A two-day symposium at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz brought together insurance executives, coastal scientists, and politicians.

California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara says it's time to start talking about "climate insurance", a proposal that would provide everyone coverage in underserved areas like Pajaro.

Experts in the field of climate change, public policy and the insurance industry gathered at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce the risks associated with climate caused natural disasters using insurance and nature-based solutions such as preserving and bolstering wetlands to prevent flooding.

UCSC’s emerging Center for Coastal Climate Resilience is applying scientific research to develop policy around climate change and coastal sustainability, while incorporating the campus’s ideals of social justice and collaboration.

The center is part of the university’s renewed research focus on climate change, resilience, and coastal sustainability. “I am honored and excited about the opportunity to lead the Center for the University,” said Beck. “The Center will focus our campus efforts on addressing the challenges we face from climate change and in identifying solutions that can benefit people and nature in coastal communities.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded UCSC and an interdisciplinary team of researchers a $20 million grant to assess climate risks and identify where coral reefs and mangroves can best protect underserved coastal communities. The project is part of the NSF’s Coastlines and People program. Professor Beck will serve as co-director of the new Climate Risks and Equitable Nature-based Solutions Hub with Professor Maya Trotz, the lead PI from the University of South Florida.

Using a benefit-risk analysis, researchers have found that mangroves and coral reefs can be cost-effective in reducing coastal flooding, a press release from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), said. Using risk and insurance industry techniques, the researchers were able to show that the gains from reduced damage from floods outweighed the costs of restoring the corals and mangroves, leading to a favorable return on investment.