Seawalls with a Twist: Can 'Hybrids' Bring a Better Balance to Coastal Defense?

The world’s coasts are under siege. 

Monstrous storms, made more powerful by warmer oceans and wetter air, are battering waterside cities from Tampa to Tallinn. At the same time, sea-level rise is catalyzing wave after wave of sunny-day floods and eating away at the very beaches and cliffs that protect shoreline communities. 

New defenses are needed. Traditional adaptation measures have leaned heavily on brutal, artificial constructs to protect homes and businesses from the ever-wilder seas. While they are effective at withstanding watery assaults, they can be downright harmful to marine life and biodiversity. Their blocky design and sheer scale also degrade shoreline aesthetics, and take away from marine spaces’ benefits to human health and wellness.

More recently, climate proofers have touted the importance and power of nature-based solutions (NbS) as coastal protectors, from mangrove forests to oyster reefs. However, these take time, space, and careful stewardship to “build” into effective defenses.

But what about solutions that borrow from both schools? Could a novel array of ‘blended’ coastal adaptations — or ‘gray-blue’ / ‘gray-green’ infrastructure — offer an effective middle way?

Coastal resilience experts and a busy crop of startups certainly hope so.

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