RISING WATERS are anything but an abstract concept for the millions of Massachusetts residents who live in coastal cities and towns. Resiliency organizations have been calling for buying out oceanfront land, conservationists push for natural coastal renovations to slow the sea’s creep, and increasingly heavy storms are making flooded basements an unpleasantly common experience around the state.
The Healey administration says it won’t be leaving them to bail out their homes alone.
A new regional coastal resiliency initiative launched on Wednesday. It’s called “ResilientCoasts” and will be led by a new “chief coastal resilience officer” within the Office of Coastal Zone Management. It will coordinate with the 78 coastal communities, divided into districts with similar landscape characteristics and facing similar climate hazards, to develop “tailored” resiliency strategies that could range from building up dunes to working toward managed retreat from vulnerable coastlines.
“We’re not going to stand by while a major storm wrecks people’s homes, or coastal erosion pulls down seawalls out from under our small businesses,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper in a statement announcing the program. “We have some tough questions ahead – where will it be safe to build? How can we preserve our historical landmarks? What infrastructure will withstand ever worsening weather? We’re taking on some of the difficult aspects of coastal resiliency, and we’re doing it in partnership with municipalities, lawmakers, academics, and advocates to build consensus along the way.”
According to the state, interviews for the chief coastal resilience officer will be held in the next month, with the new chief taking the helm in the new year. Healey said in a statement that the initiative will “bring the full powers of the state to deliver real solutions to our coastlines.”
Those coastlines – more than 1,500 miles of them – house 2.5 million Massachusetts residents in nearby communities. They are bordered by salt marshes, beaches, rocky shores, and dunes, with waterfront homes, business districts, ports, and marinas.
Depending on the nature of the resiliency districts, different strategies might be on the table. Generally, the Energy and Environmental Affairs office will be considering regulatory changes that streamline permitting for restoration and resilience projects and try to tackle coastal erosion and flood protection through nature-based solutions.
Nature-based solutions can include dunes, salt marshes, wetland landscapes, and reefs along the coastline. These softer coastal transitions can often adapt to a changing shoreline in places where sea walls may not be appropriate.
Wetland restoration has become a popular option for abandoned cranberry bogs along waterways, particularly on the Cape.
Restoring natural water flow isn’t just a perk for native wildlife, said Mark Forest, a Barnstable County commissioner and chairman of the Cape Cod Conservation District, in discussing bog projects. “My hope is that as the area is restored, the ability of the wetlands to basically hold water during heavy water events – rain, hurricanes, and other coastal storms – so that the [town’s] assets and characteristics will be enhanced and strengthened, and so that it’ll lessen property damage,” he said.
The office and a coastal resilience task force – representing communities, businesses, scientists, community-based organizations, and environmental advocates – are at work on a framework to help meet regional needs. An initial plan is expected to be released sometime this coming summer.
Conservation and coastal resiliency organizations, who have long called for a more regional approach to growing sea level rise and storm surge risks, applauded the announcement.
“Leaning into partners to collaborate is essential to transforming resilience policies, funding, and strategies,” said Alison Bowden, interim state director of The Nature Conservancy, in a statement. “And, by focusing on nature-based climate solutions to protect intact habitats, shorelines, and ecologically vital landscapes, we can make a significant difference in protecting our coastal areas against sea level rise and erosion so they can endure and be more resilient.”
Long-term, the prospects are bleak if global carbon emissions are not significantly reduced, according to the state’s federally mandated resilience plan. The state expects sea level rise of up to 2.5 feet by 2050 and 4.3 feet by 2070, compared to 2008 sea levels, along Massachusetts coasts if nothing changes.
Costs, too, will rise. Current cost estimates for buildings in the 100-year coastal storm flood plain is about $55 billion, the vast majority of it residential. But that will grow over time, with new oceanfront community expansion at the same time as the floodplain expands with rising seas. The state estimates annual average damage to coastal structures could be more than $1 billion per year by 2070.
Almost all communities with high numbers of buildings at high risk of flooding are in coastal communities. The state report highlighted Scituate, Revere, Hull, Marshfield, Quincy, and Winthrop as the municipalities with the most “repetitive loss” structures involving multiple flood damage insurance claims.
Sometimes, the best way to preserve a community’s coastline is to actively move away from it. CommonWealth Beacon reported this summer that coastal communities are getting more willing to consider the process of managed retreat – using voluntary buyouts, infrastructure relocation, and zoning changes to moving people and property out of vulnerable coastal areas – but the lack of regional planning has been a barrier, particularly for small towns.
Resilience strategies in the toolbox will include “nature-based solutions, dredging, coastal nourishment, roadway elevation, and managed retreat,” according to the Healey administration’s announcement.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency will explore a statewide buyout program, Healey said Tuesday. Other states, like New Jersey, have long-standing voluntary programs that buy properties in flood-prone or vulnerable areas from homeowners and transform the coastal property for future resilience.
The Trustees of Reservations backed legislation last year filed by Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown and Sen. Marc Pacheco of Taunton, proposing a commission to study the possibility of a statewide property buyout program. Though the earlier effort fizzled, a 2023 bill to create the commission had a hearing earlier this year, but the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources has not yet reported it out.
Such a program, the Trustees wrote in 2022’s “State of the Coast” report, “would make retreat more economically feasible while also creating natural areas along the coastline to further protect our communities.”
Advocacy groups, including the Trustees, expressed confidence in the new coastal program. Climate change is already on the radar of residents and business owners alike, they said, and the state’s work can build on local preparedness plans that so far have had to take place in municipal silos.
The announcement “comes as a welcome initiative at a critical time – just as we need to move more briskly from planning to implementation,” said Bud Ris, senior advisor to the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, in a statement. “Hopefully, we’ll get a clear set of priorities for the decades ahead, along with various strategies to implement them.”