ABSTRACT
In 2011, coastal shoreline counties contributed $6.6 trillion to the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—just under half of GDP that year. Critical to the effective uptake of living shorelines is the recognition that a particular habitat or biophysical feature does not exist in isolation. Living shorelines play an important role in acting as a management tool that meets certain societal needs such as shoreline erosion reduction, storm surge buffering, and nutrient removal. Additional information, including on performance and market/nonmarket values, is needed in order to incorporate natural and hybrid infrastructure solutions into policy, investment trade-offs, and decision-making. In a helpful analysis, the White House Ecosystem Services Assessment details the most pressing remaining challenges to economic assessment of ecosystem services provided by natural infrastructure. Better data and information, on how the structure and dynamics of different coastal ecosystems connected to living shoreline approaches result in outputs that are directly relevant and useful to decision-makers, is necessary.
