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This document summarizes the presentations and discussions that were part of the fourth in-person partner event sponsored by the NOAA in the Caribbean Initiative. The workshops were held the week of August 19, 2019, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Topics included the use of nature-based solutions to combat coastal erosion and flooding, including due to hurricanes, and adaptation planning in response to global climate change.
This guide is designed to help transportation practitioners understand how and where nature-based and hybrid solutions can be used to improve the resilience of coastal roads and bridges. It summarizes the potential flood-reduction benefits and co-benefits of these strategies, then follows the steps in the project delivery process, providing guidance on considering nature-based solutions in the planning process, conducting site assessments, key engineering and ecological design considerations, permitting approaches, construction considerations, and monitoring and maintenance strategies. The guide also includes appendices with site characterization tools, decision support for selecting nature-based solutions, suggested performance metrics, and links to additional tools and resources.
As with the rest of the world and the Caribbean region in particular, the coastal and marine communities of the US Virgin Islands (USVI) are susceptible to the effects of climate change. Hazards include increasingly hazardous coastal conditions and loss of life-sustaining marine, coastal, and island resources. Climate change is anticipated to add to the stresses of the coastal environment by altering temperature and precipitation patterns, increasing the likelihood of extreme precipitation events, and accelerating rates of sea level rise.
Responding and adapting to such changes requires an understanding of the risks; weighing options for adapting to changing conditions; and instituting a suite of strategies to implement, measure, and fund response actions having the most benefits to the ecosystems and communities that depend on those services. With support from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program, The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Caribbean Program directed a project with the objective of developing decision-support tools and conservation strategies that will advance the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) to climate change within the USVI.
