Journal article
Costs and Opportunities for Preserving Coastal Wetlands under Sea Level Rise
RK Runting, CE Lovelock, HL Beyer, JR Rhodes
Conservation Letters | WILEY | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1111/conl.12239
Abstract
Rises in sea level can alter the distribution of coastal wetlands through migration landward and loss due to inundation. The expansion of coastal developments can prevent potential wetland migration, exacerbating loss as sea levels rise. Pre-emptive planning to set aside key coastal areas for wetland migration is therefore critical for the long-term preservation of species habitat and ecosystem services, yet we have little understanding of the economic costs and benefits of doing so. Using data and simulations from Queensland, Australia, we show that the opportunity cost of preserving wetlands is likely to be much higher under sea level rise than under current sea levels. However, we find th..
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Awarded by Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Yann Dujardin for assistance with formulating the integer linear programming problem, Lochran Traill and Karin Perhans for providing a parameterized sea level affecting marshes model, and Kerrie Wilson for comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP130100218. RKR is supported by the University of Queensland - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Integrated Natural Resource Management Postgraduate Fellowship. CEL is supported by the Australian Research Council Superscience project FS100100024. HLB is supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award.