Tag Archives: rising sea

D.C. Is First to Plan to Remove, Retrofit Flood-Prone Buildings

April 30, 2019 Brother Seamus Leave a comment

According to Bloomberg, Washington D.C. is announcing a goal of retrofitting or removing all of its flood-prone buildings by 2050, the first major U.S. city to set such a policy.

“In some cases, we’re going to have to figure out how to do managed retreat and relocation,” said Kevin Bush, Washington’s chief resilience officer and the lead author of the strategy.

The Congressional Budget Office recently projected that hurricanes and storms will consume 0.3 percent of the nation’s GDP, while bond rating companies warn that ignoring extreme weather will hurt cities’ credit ratings.

The same may be true for towns, like Southampton.

To read the full article, please visit this link: “D.C. Is First to Plan to Remove, Retrofit Flood-Prone Buildings”.

The Problem with Beach Nourishment

December 13, 2018 Brother Seamus Leave a comment

Below excerpts are borrowed courtesy of a December 10th article and video published by Vox. The full article is available here.

About 80 to 90 percent of sandy beaches along America’s coastlines are eroding. This is a problem because the developments humans build near them are static. So as beaches shrink, coastal hazards can threaten to damage or destroy homes and businesses while negatively impacting tourism that depends on the beach.

The most popular strategy to counter these risks is a process called beach nourishment. Coastal engineers will add new sand to an eroding beach in order to rebuild or expand the shoreline.

But researchers discovered that coastal defense schemes like beach nourishment may ultimately do more harm than good by providing a false sense of security in critically eroding areas. There is evidence that beach nourishment can “mask or reduce the apparent impact of coastal hazards without changing the natural processes driving them.”

Visit the original article here.

Could Dredging Quogue’s Ocean Floor Harm Our Beachfront?

September 13, 2018 Brother Seamus Leave a comment

We are all stewards of our beach. All homeowners in Quogue consider our ocean beaches a precious natural resource, and all should have a say on any proposal that would alter our coastline.

The impact on Quogue’s oceanfront will not only affect a specific area (an est.1.3 miles of Quogue beach) as is proposed, but our entire 2.7 miles of oceanfront and our community as a whole. Continue reading Could Dredging Quogue’s Ocean Floor Harm Our Beachfront? →