Synthesis of Water Infrastructure Adaptation Practices in U.S. Coastal Regions

One inevitable consequence of climate change is the rising sea level, which could adversely affect critical infrastructures in the coastal regions. Thirteen percent of the world population and 39% of the U.S. population resides in such coastal regions. Specifically, water resources and supporting water infrastructure in many coastal regions have become increasingly vulnerable to both quality and capacity issues. For example, nuisance-flooding events in low-lying coastal cities and salt-water intrusion into drinking water aquifers are becoming more frequent occurrences with rising sea levels. Several coastal states have already devised and implemented water infrastructure adaptation measures to effectively address the current and anticipated challenges of sea level rise. This paper presents the preliminary results of a comprehensive synthesis of water infrastructure adaptation practices in several coastal communities. A detailed review of policy documents published by various local, state and federal water infrastructure related agencies in the U.S. are reviewed to develop the database of water infrastructure adaptation strategies described in this paper.