As erosion threatens treasured places around the Chesapeake Bay, communities are turning to nature-based solutions. Explore how living shorelines are helping to protect coasts and heritage on opposite shores of the Bay.
Living shoreline plants have a tough job: they must hold down the sandy shoreline with their roots and ease waves with their stems, all while surviving salty water.
Researchers are on a mission to determine which key components make a living shoreline successful at preventing erosion—but first they must gather crucial data.
Oyster biology is both an obstacle and an opportunity when it comes to living shorelines. Learn how and why oysters are sometimes included in living shoreline projects.
A living shoreline is under construction in Baltimore City—part of a sweeping project that aims to restore more than 50 acres of habitat along 11 miles of shoreline.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SEA LEVEL RISE rive and exacerbate coastal hazards along Maryland's 3,000 miles of coastline. Shores are vulnerable to storm events and chronic hazards connected with erosion, storm surge, and inundation. In the last 100 years, Maryland's coastal waters have risen by more than one foot (see map above), reflecting a rate nearly twice the global average. This reflects the combined impacts of rising seas and regional land subsidence. The graph above shows projections for sea level rise, given a range of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In the scenario with the greatest emissions, relative sea level rise along Maryland's coasts could top more than three feet by the end of the 21st century, according to projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Map and graph, from the Report of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change Adaptation and Response Working Group, July 2008.
As erosion threatens treasured places around the Chesapeake Bay, communities are turning to nature-based solutions. Explore how living shorelines are helping to protect coasts and heritage on opposite shores of the Bay.
Living shoreline plants have a tough job: they must hold down the sandy shoreline with their roots and ease waves with their stems, all while surviving salty water.
Researchers are on a mission to determine which key components make a living shoreline successful at preventing erosion—but first they must gather crucial data.
Oyster biology is both an obstacle and an opportunity when it comes to living shorelines. Learn how and why oysters are sometimes included in living shoreline projects.
A living shoreline is under construction in Baltimore City—part of a sweeping project that aims to restore more than 50 acres of habitat along 11 miles of shoreline.
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