With support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, last spring Earth Economics worked with Save the Sound to develop a thought experiment based on the Chittenden Park Living Shoreline project. This project would implement nature-based erosion control designs to protect and restore the 155-acre seaward edge of the West River Marsh, which would in turn protect other assets (including built infrastructure) further inland. Entering the project features into FEMA’s BCA Toolkit v6.0, we assessed its potential for promoting investment in nature-based climate mitigation solutions. By identifying key limitations of the current FEMA framework, we hope to encourage all federal agencies to consider the environment as critical natural infrastructure.
The Chittenden project differs from most FEMA projects because it would not directly protect built infrastructure. Instead, the project would mitigate future losses to built infrastructure by protecting coastal wetlands which reduce inland flooding. By protecting the larger wetland complex (which buffers homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure from coastal flooding), the Chittenden project would promote resilience for the community of Guilford. Without action, it is expected that these wetlands will continue to erode and increase the town’s vulnerability.
Unfortunately, FEMA’s current BCA framework does not account for such complex interactions. The inability to assess the disaster mitigation benefits of green infrastructure (as it does built infrastructure approaches) impairs the project’s competitiveness for mitigation funding. As such, the Chittenden project offers a unique opportunity to highlight why federal BCA frameworks need to be expanded to broaden support innovative and sustainable nature-based hazard mitigation solutions.
Source: FEMA BCA Toolkit v6.0
The report concludes with a discussion on how nonmarket valuation methods could be included within federal BCAs, highlighting how these methods are widely accepted by other state and federal decisionmakers. The report highlights three areas for improvement: (1) to view the environment as critical natural capital/infrastructure; (2) to support additional methods for incorporating more precise ecosystem service and recreational values; and (3) to incorporate non-use values into BCA frameworks.
In June 2022, Save the Sound, Connecticut Sea Grant, New York Sea Grant, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Earth Economics hosted an invite-only workshop on these findings, which was attended by more than 50 professionals from federal and state agencies, municipalities, environmental NGOs, and engineering firms.
