Economic Impact Assessment of Nature-Based Coastal Resilience Solutions in Charleston. Estimating Local Economic Effects With Algorithm-Based Supporting Tool.

Coastal cities are at the forefront of the risks induced by climate change. Local communities are adversely affected, but the essential cultural assets and economies are also at risk of damage or destruction. In the efforts to limit hazard risk exposure, local governments are increasingly planning for long-term flood protection. One prospective flood risk mitigation measure is living shorelines or nature-based adaptation. The coastal ecosystems, such as beaches, wetlands, barrier islands, oyster reefs, and salt marshes, deliver multiple benefits to communities, including recreation, natural resources, freshwater, and carbon sequestration. Moreover, when combined with structural solutions, they can effectively reduce water and storm wave energy levels. Despite these positive effects, the implementation of NbS is limited by a scarce understanding of their performance against uncertain sea level rise projections, their economic impacts, and funding gaps. In this research, I aimed to enforce this knowledge by assessing the economic values of various nature-based coastal adaptation solutions applied to the Charleston Peninsula. Tourism and recreation sectors substantially contribute to the local economy, and my assessment model focuses on them as a potential source of sharing resilience upfront costs. The nature-based adaptation generative algorithm model is spatially explicit and scenario-based, which helps reduce uncertainties. The adaptive interface helps answer my research questions and estimate the performance of Nature-based and Hybrid adaptation strategies in preventing tourism operation disruption over the planning scenarios. The model also evaluates recreational activity induced by proposed green infrastructure to expand the range of ecosystem services incorporated in the methods of economic impact assessment