Connecticut coastal towns and cities are being urged to focus on solutions that recreate natural barriers as they seek to protect and preserve their communities from the impact of climate change and sea level rise.
Scientific models predict a sea level rise of up to 20 inches by 2050.
That’s why the restoration of estuaries and sea grasses should be a priority for coastal Connecticut communities, said James O’Donnell, the executive director of the Connecticut Institute of Resiliency and Climate Adaptation at the University of Connecticut.
“If your goal is to get back to the risk it was 100 years ago, then we can talk about smaller projects and more effective and doable things that don’t require huge amounts of federal money,” O’Donnell told a coastal resiliency forum in Fairfield on Thursday.
Fairfield had a bad experience when it built a seawall to protect Penfield Pavilion at Penfield Beach following Superstorm Sandy, state Senator Tony Hwang (R-Fairfield), who convened the forum, said.
“One of the big challenges we had with Penfield during Sandy is we built up a steel wall that wouldn’t allow the water to recede,” he said. “That was a valuable lesson, recognizing that the tide is going to come in and you shouldn’t try to overmanage Mother Nature."
The City of Bridgeport and the Town of Fairfield are involved in the restoration of the Ash Creek tidal estuary in the Long Island Sound. That marshland has deteriorated due to rising sea levels, dredging and development.
