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USING BENEFIT INDICATOR TOOLS TO ASSESS WETLANDS RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION BASED ON WHO BENEFITS FROM REDUCED FLOOD RISK
Citation:
Bousquin, J. AND K. Hychka. USING BENEFIT INDICATOR TOOLS TO ASSESS WETLANDS RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION BASED ON WHO BENEFITS FROM REDUCED FLOOD RISK. Coastal GeoTools, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 11 - 14, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
Many communities are recognizing the value of flood mitigating habitats and employing green infrastructure alternatives (e.g., restoring some of those natural systems, such as wetlands) to increase their resilience. A new high resolution nationally consistent dataset is presented that can be used to inform regional and local decisions on freshwater wetland restoration or conservation. Using the Rapid Benefits Indicators approach, indicators are evaluated using this new dataset. Those indicators can then be used to prioritize wetlands restoration projects that provide the most flood risk reduction benefit. Those indicators can also be used to identify who is likely to receive those benefits. Characterizing and prioritizing wetlands restoration projects in this way allows decisions to be more efficient and transparent.
Description:
Flooding is among the most common and costly natural disasters in the United States and has been on the rise as flood mitigating habitats are lost, development places more people and infrastructure at risk, and changing climate increases flood frequency. Many communities are recognizing the value of flood mitigating habitats and employing green infrastructure alternatives (e.g., restoring some of those natural systems) to increase their resilience. Freshwater wetlands have long been recognized as one of the natural systems that can reduce flood damages by retaining and detaining surface water. Although small-scale community studies can capture the flood reduction benefits from existing or potentially restored wetlands, the scalability of these high resolution and data intensive studies is often limited. We present a new high resolution nationally consistent dataset that can be used to inform regional and local decisions on where to restore or conserve freshwater wetlands. We demonstrate how indicators from the Rapid Benefits Indicators approach can be evaluated using this new dataset. The indicators evaluated prioritize restoration for the most flood risk reduction benefit and identify who is likely to receive those benefits.