Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxx

   PDF

2. Introduction and Context

   • Mary Culver, Britta Bierwagen, Virginia Burkett, Ralph Cantral, Margaret A. Davidson, Hilary Stockdon

   Pages 1-9

3. Physical Climate Forces

   • S. Jeffress Williams, David Atkinson, Aaron R. Byrd, Hajo Eicken, Timothy M. Hall, Thomas G. Huntington et al.

   Pages 10-51

4. Vulnerability and Impacts on Natural Resources

   • Carlton H. Hershner Jr., Grant Ballard, Donald R. Cahoon, Robert Diaz, Tom Doyle, Neil K. Ganju et al.

   Pages 52-65

5. Vulnerability and Impacts on Human Development

   • Tony MacDonald, Austin Becker, Doug Bellomo, Virginia Burkett, Janet Cikir, Susan L. Cutter et al.

   Pages 66-97

6. Adaptation and Mitigation

   • Lara Hansen, Rebecca Beavers, Jeff Benoit, Diana Bowen, Ellie Cohen, Michael Craghan et al.

   Pages 98-118

7. Information Gaps and Science Needed to Support Sustainable Coasts

   • S. Jeffress Williams

   Pages 119-124

8. Back Matter

   Pages 144-185

   PDF

Developed to inform the 2013 National Climate Assessment, this report examines the known effects and relationships of climate change variables on the coasts of the US. It describes the impacts on natural and human systems, including several major sectors of the US economy, and covers the progress and challenges to planning and implementing adaptation options.

• Climate change
• Coastline
• Ocean circulation patterns
• Saltwater intrusion
• Sea level rise
• climate change impacts
• Climate change management
• coastal sciences
• Fish and Wildlife Biology

• Climate and Land Use Change, U.S. Geological Survey, Many, USA

  Virginia Burkett

• U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Coastal Services Center, Charleston, USA

  Margaret Davidson

Virginia Burkett is the Chief Scientist for Climate and Land Use Change at the U.S. Geological Survey.  She was formerly Chief of the Forest Ecology Branch at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Burkett has also served as Secretary/Director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Acting Director of the Louisiana Coastal Zone Management Program, and Assistant Director of the Louisiana Geological Survey.  She has published extensively on the topics of global change and low-lying coastal zones.  She has served as a Lead Author of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (2001 and 2007), the IPCC Technical Paper on Water (2008), and the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report that is scheduled for completion in 2014. She was a lead author of the 2001 and 2009 National Assessments of climate change impacts produced by the United States Global Change Research Program.  She has co-authoredreports for The Wildlife Society (2004), the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (2005), the Everglades Task Force (2007), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (2008) that address climate change impacts and potential adaptation strategies.  Burkett has been appointed to over 40 Commissions, Committees, Science Panels and Boards during her career.  She serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals Ethics in Science and Environmental Policy and Regional Environmental Change. Burkett received her doctoral degree in forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1996.

Margaret Davidson, the director of the NOAA Coastal Services Center, is no stranger to the coast or its many challenges. Before joining NOAA, Margaret A. Davidson was executive director of the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium from 1983 to 1995. She also served as special counsel and assistant attorney general for the Louisiana Department of Justice.

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