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FINANCIAL IMPACT
In Canada, damage due to climate
change and extreme weather events has Figure 7.3 – Moving your home back from the shoreline
cost, on average, $1.8 billion or planning new builds far away from shorelines is a
pre-emptive strategy to plan for sea level rise.
each year between 2009 and 2017
Photo by: Aude Lozano on Unsplash
(Moudrak et al. 2018). This is a massive
increase compared to previous years
where the average was $405 million Adapting to Sea Level Rise —
per year between 1983 and 2008. BC Coastal Adaptation Strategies
The primary driver of this jump is Clearly, we need to plan and adapt to a future of
higher sea levels . Options for mitigating the threat
coastal and inland flooding which of sea level rise are to ‘Protect’, ‘Retreat’, ‘Avoid’ and
causes expensive water damage. ‘Accommodate’ .
Flooding is not only financially costly, Protect
but it also contributes to stress and One of the strategies to face sea level rise, is to
‘protect’ coastal properties using hard armouring
anxiety, impacting mental health of structures . Although hard armouring structures
those affected. Destruction from such as seawalls (bulkheads), riprap and rock
flooding can be life altering — revetments, can be rapidly built and protect
individual properties, it is a reactive, expensive
potentially causing families and and short-term strategy . As we have seen, hard
individuals to relocate, or to struggle armouring structures will not protect properties
financially as they go through the forever . As sea levels rise and with time, the
hard armouring structures will weaken, and
process of repairing or replacing higher incoming waves will overtop them, impacting
homes and other infrastructure. buildings and homes behind them . Hard armouring
on shorelines also impedes natural processes,
reduce important habitats and exacerbates the
effects of rising sea levels (See Chapter 5) .
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