The role of ecosystems in coastal protection: Adapting to climate change and

coastal hazards
By Lorena Botero Betancur

Climate changed affect the normal level of the river, causing devastating coastal
storm events with flooding and erosion and the salinization of groundwater,
creating greater problems each time. With the increasing coast development, the
risk is also worse economically and socially because loads of communities depend
on them to survive so it is mandatory to protect the coasts without affecting the
community.
Mangroves and salt marshes reduce wave energy, increasing sedimentation and
decreasing erosion and movement of sediments and in the case of dense
vegetation cover, it contributes reducing water flow velocities, turbulent flows and
shear stress helping the sediment deposition that can help the root production that
are important for the soil cohesion improvement and tensile strength, decreasing
erosion; they can also have a physical barrier between the water and soil.
Mangroves attenuate wave action and reduce wave movement especially during
normal event scenarios. Salt marshes are very beneficial for long term sediment
dynamics modification but not much to reduce erosion during more extreme
events.
In the case of corals are the importance lays on the mass transfer of energy from
overlying waters into reef structures dampening wave action what makes them
very influential in the reduction of coastal erosion. Beaches, dunes and Barrier
Island are in charge of the dissipation of wave energy and sediment reserves to
help to keep the coastlines and the level rise.
The ecosystems are being vulnerable because of the human action mainly
because of land claim, aquaculture mangrove harvest and overfishing. The only
way to reduce the human vulnerably and decrease the climate change is to
maintain the ecosystems in a good condition so the mechanisms previously
mentioned are effective as well.
The critical steps to ensure the natural protection of the coast are: build the case
for natural coast protection, advance coastal protection science, quantify
ecosystem services in addition to coastal protection, Incorporate proven
management interventions, bring ecosystems into mainstream decision making
processes, consider ecosystems in vulnerability assessments of coastal
communities, develop scenarios and tools that model complex combined Risks,
build decision support systems to help communities visualize impacts of and
solutions for coastal adaptation, engage stakeholders, enact policies to ensure
environmental integrity: the no regret policy, they can be applied for adaptation
planning; and build capacity for implementation due to the need for adaptation and
proceed to planning.
In conclusion, climate change and nature hazards due to the change in the
ecosystems are impacting the communities in general. More testing is required for
its protection and understanding, also because coasts can affect other ecosystems
and the solutions that have been given are not effective or enough.