Abstract

An increasing awareness of the need to reduce the potential adverse impacts of hardened coastal structures has prompted interest in the development of living shorelines as an alternative. This webinar will review of the benefits of living shorelines in comparison with traditional hardened shoreline protection structures, including non-structural and hybrid approaches, and describe the effectiveness of these approaches in response to waves, storms and sea-level rise. The webinar will also explore where living shorelines may be suitable on the Connecticut Coast based on an automated geospatial model which determines the suitability of living shoreline treatment options for the Long Island Sound shoreline. Factors such as fetch, bathymetry, erosion rates, marsh, and beach are taken into consideration in producing site suitability. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the site suitability model, as well as a tutorial of an online map-viewer which has been developed to display results from the analysis. A brief overview of the conference proceedings from the first-ever national living shorelines summit in Hartford, which drew nearly 300 researchers, government employees, engineers, students and others, will be provided.