Ecological Coastal Protection: Pathways to Living Shorelines

Sea-level rise poses major challenges to coastal landscapes and communities. Sustainable adaptation to sea-level rise has been a growing concern for coastal management authorities, engineers, ecologists, urban planners and designers. A shift from ‘coastal armoring’ and hard engineered ‘defense systems’, to ecologically informed infrastructures has created opportunities and challenges in designing structures that can perform beyond engineering goals and provide ecological and social benefits. Emerging studies determine the importance of ecological knowledge and landscape-based solutions in informing the design of coastal infrastructures; however, there are limited number of projects that demonstrate the most effective design approaches. This paper reviews existing and emerging projects that propose modified coastal structures including bioengineered breakwaters and living shorelines with natural and nature-based features that have multiple benefits such as reducing flood risks and mitigating the loss of intertidal and shallow water biodiversity. Two case studies of coastal management projects in the U.S. and Singapore are investigated, which take a ‘design by research’ approach through testing innovative approaches to achieve multiple benefits. Opportunities and challenges associated with the design and construction of coastal structures with different levels of integrating landscape-based solutions are identified across projects, and guidelines for the design and construction industry are provided