Climate Adaptation and Disaster Mitigation: Land Use Strategies

• Author: John R. Nolon
• Pages: 217-260

217

Chapter 6:

Climate Adaptation

and Disaster Mitigation:

Land Use Strategies

I. Climate Change, Adaptation, and Disasters

A. Inundation, Flooding, and Fiercer Storms

In Chapter 5, the gathering consensus regarding climate change and its

impacts on the environment a nd human settlements are discussed. at

chapter cited the increasing number of independent reports that recognize

the existence of climate change and associate it with human behavior. Of

importance to this chapter is the eect of climate change on sea levels, storm

surges, and extreme precipitation that aect the local environment and that

are driving loca l governments to respond to climate-induced disasters with

the signicant help of their states and federa l agencies.

e 2013 report of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, discu ssed

in Chapter 5, forecast s likely future changes including more intense hurri-

canes with related increases in wind, rain, and storm surges, and sea level rise

in coastal areas.1 In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court incorporated

by reference a report of the National Research Council that

identies a number of environmental changes that have already inicted si g-

nicant harms, includin g the global retreat of mountain glaciers, reduction in

snow-cover extent, the e arlier spring melting of ice on rivers and lakes, [and]

the accelerated rate of rise of sea levels du ring the 20th century relative to the

past few thousa nd years.2

Climate change causes the temperature of seawater to increase.3 is rise

in sea temperature in tropical areas increase s the ferocity of hurricanes, as

“[w]armer surface water d issipates more readily into vapor, mak ing it easier

for small ocean storms to escalate into larger, more powerful systems.”4

e combination of sea level rise and more intense storm events can lead

to a host of problems, including reduced freshwater supplies and severe dam-

218 Standing Ground

age to infrastruct ure of all types, including energy generation pla nts, and

coastal and ood pla in ecosystems.5 e threat of extreme precipitation is of

particular concern in the Northeast and Midwest regions where the inten-

sity and number of extreme rainfa ll events have increased substantia lly over

the past 30 years, with ood ing drastically aecting communities in the

Northeast.6 Climate change brings with it warmer air which contains more

water vapor and aects weather patterns, particularly in storm fronts in mid-

latitude regions.7 Simply put, “storm surges are exacerbated by rising sea

level.”8 is danger is of no small consequence, as “thirty-nine percent of the

population lives in coastal shoreline counties . . . [and] just under half of the

annual GDP of the United States is generated in coastal shoreline counties,

an annual contribution that was $6.6 trillion in 2011.”9

True to these predictions, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in October

2012, becoming t he second costliest hurricane in the nation’s history, with

damage measured at $65.7 billion.10 With wave heights peaking at over 32

feet, Sandy dama ged or destroyed 650,000 homes, mostly in New York and

New Jersey.11 e extraordinary national attention Sandy attracted ma sks

The Nationa l Oceanic and Atmospher ic Administration’s GOE S-13 satellite captured th is

image of Hurri cane Sandy.

Climate Adaptation and Disaster Mitigation: Land Use Strategies 219

the reality that in 2012 alone, there were 11 climate related weather events

with d amage exceeding $1 billion in the United States.12 Gulf Coast state

residents a re still recovering from Katrina, the nation’s costliest hurricane

with damages exceeding t wice those of Sandy.13 A Presidential task force on

rebuilding post-Sandy makes it clear that climate change has “eliminated the

option of simply building back to outdated standards. . . .”14 e nation can-

not continue to aord the cost of rebuilding.

Development pressure on U.S. coastlines—building allowed by local land

use plans and regulations—is bound to make a bad situation worse in com-

ing decades. In 2010, more than 123 million America ns—39% of the U.S.

population—lived in coastal c ounties, according tothe National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration (NOA A). NOAA expects the coastal pop-

ulation to increase by eight percent to 133 million by 2020.15 State and local

governments in these areas a re beginning to pay attention to these wa rnings

and to real signs that the eects of climate change are already occurring,

particularly at the ocean’s edge. As this chapter demonstrates, local govern-

ments are rethinking and revising their la nd use plans and zoning to reect

what t hey have learned by the destruct ion wrought by coastal storms and

unprecedented ooding.

As state and local governments struggle to frame responses to these wors-

ening problems, certain decisions made at t he federal level have rendered

their task more dicult. Most notably, despite all that we have learned in the

past few decades, Congress has failed to update the Coastal Zone Manage-

ment Act and Disaster Mitigation Act, while the Supreme Court has created

judicial barriers to eective state a nd loca l action. Lucas v. South Carolina

Coastal Council (1992), Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department

of Environmental Protection (2010), and Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Man-

agement District (2013) have had an unsettling eect on state and local agen-

cies as they attempt to address the devastating eects of increased sea level

rise and storms.16

B. Policy Options

ere are three main policies for dealing with sea level rise: retreat, accom-

modation, and protection.17 Retreat policies aim to minimize the hazards of

sea level rise by restricting, prohibiting, or removing development from vul-

nerable areas. Examples of retreat strategies include government land acquisi-

tion, rolling easements, and setback requirements. Accommodation strategies

attempt to minimize damage to structures from ooding and storm surges.