Year: 2018
Project(s):
Relevance
As sea-level rise science improves, updated projections of sea-level rise are released, which can cause confusion among stakeholders trying to understand which projections to use in planning. Further, projections are released by international, national and regional organizations with differing projections, timelines and carbon scenarios, generating additional confusion among stakeholders. Restoration professionals in the northern Gulf were unsure which suite of projections to use and to which specific scenario the breakwater should be built.
Response
The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative coordinator, who is supported by Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, collaborated with Gulf restoration professionals, helping them access and understand a newly developed suite of resources providing recently released localized sea-level rise projections and exceedance probabilities.
Results
The restoration professionals understood that building breakwaters for the restoration to reflect the intermediate sea-level rise scenario instead of the intermediate-low sea-level rise scenario would reduce the chance of mean sea level overtopping their breakwaters by 79%. This prompted a cost analysis, and they found that it was within the scope of the budget to build the higher, more resilient breakwaters.
Recap
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant outreach professionals engaged Gulf restoration professionals, which allowed them to understand the likelihoods of different localized sea-level rise scenarios causing them to build higher, more resilient breakwaters. (2018)