Can Science Save Coastal Development?
Nicholas School Faculty Members Play Key Roles in Documenting Threats and Offering Ways to Avoid Them
by John Manuel
Despite the recent hurricanes, a rise in sea levels and the erosion of our nation’s shoreline, people are still rushing to build on the coast. Forty percent of new commercial development and 46 percent of new residential development has happened near the coast in recent years.
This development brings muchneeded jobs to coastal economies, but experts warn it also brings new risks. Nonsustainable development can accelerate beach erosion, wetlands loss and water pollution. And the buildings themselves are threatened with eventual destruction by natural forces.
A host of Nicholas School faculty members are playing key roles in documenting these threats and offering ways to avoid them.
But will decisionmakers listen to the voice of science?
Michael Orbach is professor of the practice of marine affairs and policy and director of the Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. He has helped shape coastal and marine policy on all coasts of the United States, as well as in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Orbach hopes that construction of the Marine Lab’s $2.2 million Ocean Science Teaching Center (see Dukeenvironment Fall 2005) will serve as a model for sustainable development on the North Carolina coast.
Scheduled to open in July, the 5,600 square-foot center has been designed to the highest standards of energy and environmental efficiency adopted by the U.S. Green Building Council. Featuring solar panels and a geothermal heating and cooling system, the building is constructed largely of locally produced wood. Recycled material has been used wherever possible.
The landscaping on Pivers Island, which the Marine Lab shares with laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also showcases the benefits of sustainability. Typically, waterfront landowners install vertical bulkheads on the sound side of their properties to prevent erosion from waves. However, these structures deprive finfish and shellfish of valuable nursery grounds by eliminating the shallows and the vegetation that grows in them.
Instead, 500 feet of existing bulkhead on the west side of Pivers Island has been removed, and the earth has been graded and replanted with native vegetation above and below the waterline. The plants, now in their fourth year, are thriving.
“The state brings people by all the time to show them they don’t have to bulkhead the shore,” Orbach says. “Building this way actually costs a little less than building a bulkhead.”
A cultural anthropologist by training, Orbach views coastal development from the human perspective, trying to accommodate people’s needs while protecting the environment. Following hurricanes Fran and Bertha, beaches on North Carolina’s Bogue Banks eroded by as much as 100 feet, cutting away the beach, dunes and maritime forest and threatening dozens of structures.
Oceanfront property owners demanded action. Carteret County responded by forming a Beach Preservation Task Force with Orbach as chair. He was able to steer the committee away from what he viewed as a drastic and environmentally unwise action.
“A lot of property owners on the task force wanted to challenge the state’s ban on hardened structures,” he says. “I wanted to find a way to protect owner’s property and the environment as well. In the end, the committee opted to pursue beach nourishment.”
Beach nourishment involves dredging sand from the ocean floor and dumping it on the shore.
Nicholas School MEMs acted as advisors to the task force, providing valuable information to guide the nourishment process. Tod Hall MEM’95 conducted a detailed study of sand compatibility—what types of sand work for beach nourishment and what don’t. Nancy Perkins MEM’97 detailed the state and federal regulations governing how nourishment must be done.
Photos: Larry Crowder; William Kirby-Smith; Mike Orbach; Orrin Pilkey; Curt Richardson