Panel: Maine’s rising seas prompt local adaptation challenges, but solutions are possible

As Mainers witness the growing local weather change-driven results of rising seas, specialists at an occasion in Portland Wednesday night time mentioned coastal communities have to act extra shortly to adapt. 

About 50 individuals got here to the panel dialogue on the Gulf of Maine Analysis Institute, co-hosted by The Maine Monitor, Colby School’s Buck Lab, and GMRI in tandem with the Monitor’s latest undertaking “The Unstoppable Ocean: 10 tales from the sting of Maine.” 

“This problem is already right here immediately, and it’s simply going to proceed to worsen,” mentioned Peter Slovinsky, who research sea degree rise and coastal erosion as a marine geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. “So the time to behave and begin to reply is now.”

The rise in sea ranges, attributable to the growth of warming waters and melting ice sheets, has accelerated for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, federal knowledge exhibits. Maine’s Local weather Council says coastal communities ought to plan for 1.5 ft of rise by 2050 — which might supplant near half of the state’s dry seashores and drive a pointy enhance in nuisance flooding — and 4 ft by 2100. 

GMRI researcher Hannah Baranes, who joined Wednesday’s panel, mentioned scientists are rising extra sure in regards to the adjustments locations like Maine can anticipate within the coming a long time. Tipping factors associated to potential ice sheet collapse are nonetheless a significant space of uncertainty — however it’s slowly changing into clearer what people might or might not obtain relating to decreasing emissions.

Camden Choose Board vice chair Alison McKellar sees the consequences of those emissions, and the rising seas they trigger, firsthand. McKellar has labored to doc the worsening storm surges and better tides which are more and more inundating Camden Harbor’s seawall and close by waterfront. 

She mentioned this anecdotal, visible proof has helped encourage a brand new consensus in her city. 

“I haven’t been listening to, not too long ago, like, ‘Oh, this by no means occurs in Camden, the ocean wall doesn’t overtop,’” McKellar advised Wednesday’s viewers. “What we’re arguing about now’s extra, how ought to we adapt to it?” 

In accordance with Slovinsky, there are a number of methods communities can sort out the issue. They’ll work to keep away from the rising waters; do nothing and allow them to in; accommodate and adapt to elevated sea ranges; shield towards the impacts of the change; or retreat altogether. 

“We in Maine are going to have to reply in some areas by retreating,” Slovinsky mentioned. “Issues are going to flood too many instances, and doubtless economics goes to drive it, however retreat is one thing that needs to be thought of.” 

However there are myriad challenges to planning these responses and avoiding unmitigated impacts from flooding, saltwater intrusion and extra, panelists mentioned. Kate Cough, the Monitor reporter who wrote the Unstoppable Ocean sequence, mentioned that she discovered that smaller cities typically need assistance accessing planning sources to make knowledgeable choices. 

The patchwork of visible and anecdotal proof obtainable to assist individuals grasp the urgency of the difficulty is one other drawback. One GMRI program, which collects citizen observations of coastal flooding in Maine, goals to assist with that.

A lot of the coast, particularly in Southern Maine, is overly fortified with ill-adaptable partitions, pavement and growth — one thing photographer Alex Maclean mentioned he was struck by as he took photos of the shoreline by air for the Monitor sequence. 

Small-town New England governments typically aren’t properly outfitted to maneuver shortly on such a posh, slow-moving menace. 

“There’s undoubtedly an inclination to keep away from planning and alter for actually so long as potential,” McKellar mentioned. “Oftentimes, doing higher comes right down to ordinance adjustments, largely, and it’s actually boring stuff. …  A number of instances individuals don’t have the persistence for that.” 

However she sees indicators of hope — comparable to billions in new federal funding for local weather adaptation, and growing political help for “nature-based options.” These would come with restored dunes and marshy shorelines that buffer extra cheaply and flexibly towards storms, versus rock seawalls that shunt erosive impacts onto neighbors and can inevitably find yourself submerged once more.

“Change is inevitable — change goes to occur whether or not we plan for it or not,” McKellar mentioned. “But when we plan for it in a approach that advantages biodiversity and habitat and people, we’re going to get some huge cash to do it, and it may be for the higher. If we wish to simply preserve taking place the identical highway and patching issues up, taxpayers are going to have to spend so much of their cash.” 

Viewers members from coastal cities agreed that they’re already seeing the consequences of rising seas. Lauren Gallagher, of Ocean Park in Previous Orchard Seaside, mentioned she got here out to the GMRI occasion to be taught extra about what to anticipate and the way communities like hers may adapt. 

“We all know we are able to’t change Mom Nature,” Gallagher mentioned, “however we have now to see how we are able to work together with her.”