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Mangrove Loss, Climate Change & Flooding in Cartagena, Colombia
October 5, 2024
UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
We use game engine technology to visualize the dynamic results from coupled Climate, Wave, Flooding and Socio-economic models.
This video depicts future climate-driven flooding if mangroves are lost (main) or conserved (inset) during 50-year storm events in Cartagena, Colombia. Even with climate driven increases in storms and sea levels much of Cartagena can be protected if we conserve mangrove habitat.
Hydrodynamic modeling by Pelayo Menéndez and Ali Mohammad Rezaie with Borja Gonzalez Reguero, David Gutiérrez-Barceló, Rae Taylor-Burns and Chris Lowrie, 3D visualization by Ian Costello and Jessica Kendall-Bar. Project supported by the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience and the AXA Research Fund
CCCR Visualization Overview
August 26, 2024
UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
The Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at UC Santa Cruz is working to visualize the flood protection benefits of natural infrastructure like coral reefs and mangroves. Its researchers combine rigorous hydrodynamic and socio-economic modeling with visualization to analyze and communicate wave-driven coastal flood models to scientists, decision makers, and the public.
Video production by Jessica Kendall-Bar.
3D visualization by Ian Costello.
Hydrodynamic modeling by Borja Reguero, Camila Gaido-Lasserre, Benjamin Norris, and David Gutiérrez-Barceló.
This work was supported by the State of California. With additional support from AXA, USGS, NSF, USACE, and DARPA.
Strong Coasts project at Laughing Bird Caye in Belize
August 15, 2024
UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience and the National Science Foundation's Strong Coasts project aims to quantify the benefits from coral reef restoration and other nature-based solutions, and their ability to reduce coastal risks across multiple geographies. In Belize, significant progress has already been made in coral reef restoration, spearheaded by Strong Coasts project partner, Fragments of Hope, at Laughing Bird Caye National Park. The Center will be completing a comprehensive analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of reef ecosystems, like these restored reefs at Laughing Bird Caye National Park, in mitigating the impact of waves and contributing to enhanced resilience along the entire Belize coastline.
Professor Mike Beck speaks at the National Academies Policy Forum on Nature-based Solutions
February 7, 2024
The Network for Engineering with Nature and the National Academy of Sciences' Gulf Research Program hosted a Policy Forum on Nature-based Solutions on February 7-8, 2024. The event was free and open to the public, bringing together policymakers, regulators, practitioners, academics, and others involved in the funding, policymaking, design, and/or construction of nature-based solutions.
Building Coastal Resilience with Nature
July 16, 2023
AXA MasterScience Research Fund
Coasts play a central role in our societies and yet, because of climate change, coasts are now at greater risk or erosion and flooding. In this masterclass, Prof. Mike Beck explores the superpower of nature, especially reefs and wetlands, to help coastal communities adapt to climate change.
Kraw Lecture: Building Coastal Resilience, Naturally
October 25, 2022
UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
Climate-related coastal disasters increasingly strain state and national budgets. Further, most current hazard mitigation relies on artificial infrastructure that further degrades nature. Beck’s team shows that coastal habitats can be cost effective for building climate resilience, which helps create opportunities to benefit both people and nature. Learn about how climate-related coastal disasters increasingly strain state and national budgets. Most of the current hazard mitigation relies on artificial infrastructure that further degrades nature, and Beck’s team shows that coastal habitats can be cost effective for building climate resilience, helping create opportunities that benefit both people and nature.
Building Coastal Resilience, Naturally
October 19, 2022
Kraw Lecture Series on Science and Technology
Climate-related coastal disasters increasingly strain state and national budgets and most of these funds support artificial infrastructure that further degrades nature. Professor Mike Beck shows that coastal habitats can be cost effective for building climate resilience. He outlines how with a little disaster jiu-jitsu we can turn a grave threat to nature into an opportunity to save it.
OPC Prop 68: Nature-based Adaptation Solutions
August 24, 2022
Ocean Protection Council
This Prop 68 project uses complex computational models for the SF Bay to evaluate current and future flood risk. By modeling increases in sea-levels and storms, the team can assess the consequences of increased flooding to people and property, but also assess how ‘restored’ wetland habitats adjacent to development in low-lying areas can reduce flooding risk. Similar models are used to assess how management choices and other adaptation solutions can mitigate other climate impacts, such as wildfires, drought, and extreme heat.
Flood Risk & Benefits: Nature-Based Solutions
May 18, 2022
InsuResilience Global Partnership
There is growing recognition of the role of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, but despite mounting evidence of their technical efficacy, NbS face sizeable challenges and barriers to adoption, one of those being lack of clarity on how to quantify NbS benefits, leading to a failure to account for the true value of the generated benefits. This workshop organized by the InsuResilience Global Partnership contributes to a better understanding of the quantification of NbS in order to estimate the benefits of Nature-based Solutions and price them accordingly.
Restoring and Enhancing Reef Communities
February 4, 2022
Healthy Oceans Forum
In this session of the Asian Development Bank Healthy Oceans Forum, Dr. Michael Beck sets the scene by providing an overview of the latest science, trends, and technologies for building coastal resilience to reduce risk to people, property and nature. He highlights the need to integrate nature-based solutions for coastal resilience, and the need for “green” rather than “grey” solutions.
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