How Coastal Cities can Build Climate Resilience | MIT Sloan

MBL Associate Scientist Loretta Roberson spoke at the MIT Water Summit on the benefits of seaweed aquaculture relative to climate resiliency, such as providing coastlines with wave surge protection and mitigating ocean acidification.

Yet coastlines have never been a more dangerous place to be.

In 2020, the global sea level set a record high: 3.6 inches more than the 1993 average, when satellite measuring began. In many locations along the U.S. coastline, high-tide flooding is up by 1100% since 2000. Meanwhile, 40% of coastal residents are also part of vulnerable communities: the old, the young, and the poor.

At the recent MIT Water Summit, an annual event hosted by the MIT Water Club, advocates and experts detailed ways coastal communities can become more resilient.

Coastal resilience is a key environmental mitigation strategy as the disasters of Hurricanes Harvey, Ida, Katrina, Maria, and Sandy still haunt coastal areas. And it makes good business sense, given that most companies maintain a shoreline presence: 2.5 million U.S. businesses are in coastline counties, employing 37.1 million workers.