Florida & Puerto Rico: Coral restoration protects thousands of lives - Oceanographic
Conservation

Coral restoration in Florida and Puerto Rico can protect thousands of lives, new study finds

Conservation

Coral restoration in Florida and Puerto Rico can protect thousands of lives, new study finds

A new study found that the restoration of degraded coral reefs can protect thousands of lives annually in Florida and Puerto Rico.

21/01/2025
Words by Nane Steinhoff
Photographs by Shaun Wolfe / Ocean Image Bank

Have you ever thought about the value of coral reefs? While they serve as important ecosystems which promote biodiversity, they also serve as storm and erosion protection, and provide jobs and food for millions of people. According to a previous study led by UC Santa Cruz, existing coral reefs shield more than 18,000 people and provide more than $1.8 billion annually for the direct benefits of avoided flood damages to property in the United States.

To quantify the value of coral reefs and their restoration, a new study, co-led by the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) at UC Santa Cruz, has now shown that coral reef restoration in Florida and Puerto Rico could save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and economic interruption each year. Children, elderly, minorities, and those living below the poverty line would benefit the most from restoration, the study argues. 

As part of the study, titled Hybrid coral-reef restoration can be a cost-effective nature-based solution to provide protection to vulnerable coastal populations, which was published in Science Advances on 15 January, the researchers at UC Santa Cruz and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a modelling system to quantify the value coral reef restoration could provide to over 600 miles of coastlines in Florida and Puerto Rico. The research compared how much flooding storms would cause with and without coral reef restoration at a resolution of 10 square metres (or 108 square feet). Researchers then determined how many people and how much property and economic activity reef restoration could protect by preventing coastal flooding.

“Our modelling is a major advance in characterising the effectiveness of nature-based infrastructure for coastal protection. The approach can also be applied to other ecosystems, such as beaches, marshes, oyster reefs, and mangrove forests,” said CCCR principal investigator and associate professor in the Coastal Science & Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz Borja Reguero.

“In addition, this modelling system can be used to assess the impacts of future changes in storms or sea level, helping us to measure when and how cost effective it is to adapt,” Reguero added.

As storms become more frequent and heavier due to a warming planet, coral reefs can act as a natural barrier to coastal storms. As reefs absorb and weaken waves, less flooding and erosion hits the coastline and therefore saves lives and money. According to the study, restoring degraded or destroyed coral reefs could protect nearly 3,000 people each year in Florida and Puerto Rico alone. Additionally, reefs could prevent $391 million worth of damage to property and lost economic activity in these countries annually. 

The study’s authors also identified where reef restoration would be cost effective on the coasts of Florida and Puerto Rico. They show that, on about 20% of the reef-lined coasts, that the value of property protected from storm damage would be greater than the cost of reef restoration, while restored coral reefs can last longer than artificial defences alone. When sea levels rise, seawalls and similar structures would have to be raised, while coral reefs are living organisms that simply would grow with the changing sea levels. 

The biggest benefactors of coral reef restoration, according to the authors, would be vulnerable people living inland as they could receive two- to three times more protection from flooding than the general population. The researchers found that properties right on the coast will flood with or without restoration. However, reef restoration can significantly reduce the size of the flood zone behind these coastal properties, where more vulnerable people such as children and the elderly are more likely to reside. 

While the study only considers the economic benefits of avoided damage, the results can act as a method which management agencies could use to mitigate coastal hazards, while also providing a framework to calculate benefit-to-cost analyses for coral-reef restoration in hazard-risk reduction.

“Most hazard mitigation and disaster-recovery funding supports more artificial infrastructure such as seawalls that degrade nature. By valuing the benefits of natural infrastructure, we level the playing field and open major new funding opportunities for reef restoration, ” said CCCR Director Michael W. Beck, a co-lead on the project.

And, as restored reefs also benefit industries like tourism, recreation, and fisheries, the true economic value of coral reef restoration is likely much higher.

Click here for more from the Oceanographic Newsroom.

Words by Nane Steinhoff
Photographs by Shaun Wolfe / Ocean Image Bank

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