Are American Coasts Under-Protected?

Abstract

This study tests whether potential coastal sea walls would pass a cost benefit test given current risks of flooding. The paper combines detailed GIS property data with local scientific measurements of relative SLR and storm risks to measure expected benefits and applies this methodology to measure the optimal strategy for the coastal town of East Haven, Connecticut. The paper finds that East Haven should build sea walls that are about 1 m high along its entire coastline. The benefit to cost ratio is about 2 to 1.