IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v4y2021i8d10.1038_s41893-021-00706-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The value of US coral reefs for flood risk reduction

Author

Listed:
  • Borja G. Reguero

    (University of California)

  • Curt D. Storlazzi

    (United States Geological Survey)

  • Ann E. Gibbs

    (United States Geological Survey)

  • James B. Shope

    (University of California)

  • Aaron D. Cole

    (University of California)

  • Kristen A. Cumming

    (United States Geological Survey)

  • Michael W. Beck

    (University of California)

Abstract

Habitats, such as coral reefs, can mitigate increasing flood damages through coastal protection services. We provide a fine-scale, national valuation of the flood risk reduction benefits of coral habitats to people, property, economies and infrastructure. Across 3,100 km of US coastline, the top-most 1 m of coral reefs prevents the 100-yr flood from growing by 23% (113 km2), avoiding flooding to 53,800 (62%) people, US$2.7 billion (90%) damage to buildings and US$2.6 billion (49%) in indirect economic effects. We estimate the hazard risk reduction benefits of US coral reefs to exceed US$1.8 billion annually. Many highly developed coastlines in Florida and Hawaii receive annual benefits of over US$10 million km–1, whereas US reefs critically reduce flooding of vulnerable populations. This quantification of spatial risk reduction can help to prioritize joint actions in flood management and environmental conservation, opening new opportunities to support reef management with hazard mitigation funding.

Suggested Citation

  • Borja G. Reguero & Curt D. Storlazzi & Ann E. Gibbs & James B. Shope & Aaron D. Cole & Kristen A. Cumming & Michael W. Beck, 2021. "The value of US coral reefs for flood risk reduction," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 688-698, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:4:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1038_s41893-021-00706-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-021-00706-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00706-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-021-00706-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren T. Toth & Curt D. Storlazzi & Ilsa B. Kuffner & Ellen Quataert & Johan Reyns & Robert McCall & Anastasios Stathakopoulos & Zandy Hillis-Starr & Nathaniel Hanna Holloway & Kristen A. Ewen & Clay, 2023. "The potential for coral reef restoration to mitigate coastal flooding as sea levels rise," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:4:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1038_s41893-021-00706-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.