Economic valuation of coral reef ecosystem service of coastal protection: A pragmatic approach

Pichon, Nicolas; Allenbach, Michel; Brathwaite, Angelique; Burke, Lauretta; Port, Guillaume Le; Clua, Éric

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.07.005

Cited by 67 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ applied in coral reefs ecosystems 34 and commonly used in engineering and insurance sectors 51,52 . We examine the role of mangroves in reducing flood risks by measuring the impacts of flooding on people and property under two different scenarios: with and without mangroves.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Flood Protection Benefits of Mangroves

Menéndez

Losada

Torres-Ortega

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

327

155

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coastal flood risks are rising rapidly. We provide high resolution estimates of the economic value of mangroves forests for flood risk reduction every 20 km worldwide. We develop a probabilistic, processbased valuation of the effects of mangroves on averting damages to people and property. We couple spatially-explicit 2-D hydrodynamic analyses with economic models, and find that mangroves provide flood protection benefits exceeding $US 65 billion per year. If mangroves were lost, 15 million more people would be flooded annually across the world. Some of the nations that receive the greatest economic benefits include the USA, China, India and Mexico. Vietnam, India and Bangladesh receive the greatest benefits in terms of people protected. Many (>45) 20-km coastal stretches particularly those near cities receive more than $US 250 million annually in flood protection benefits from mangroves. These results demonstrate the value of mangroves as natural coastal defenses at global, national and local scales, which can inform incentives for mangrove conservation and restoration in development, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and insurance. Coastal flooding impacts are increasing due to coastal development, population growth 1 , climate change 2,3 , and habitat loss 4-7. In 2017 alone, overall storm damages were more than $US 170 billion in the North Atlantic 8. However, development choices often neglect flood risks 3,9,10 and there is growing pressure to adopt flood mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce these impacts and economic losses 9,11,12. In many tropical and subtropical regions mangroves reduce waves and storm surges, and serve as a first line of defense against flooding and erosion. These benefits are provided through bottom friction, the cross-shore width of forests, tree density and shape. The aerial roots of a mangroves forest retain sediments, stabilizing the soil of intertidal areas and reducing erosion 13. Roots, trunk and canopy dissipates storm surge 14 and waves 15. Previous studies have shown that mangroves can reduce up to 66% of wave energy in the first 100 m of forest width 15,16. Mangroves can also provide adaptive defenses as they can, under the right conditions, keep pace with sea-level-rise through vertical accretion 17-19. Yet, mangroves have experienced significant losses over the last decades, declining globally from 139,777 km 2 in 2000 to 131,931 km 2 in 2014 20 , with even greater losses before 2000. Most of this loss has happened through the conversion for aquaculture or agriculture and coastal development 21. The loss of these habitats can contribute to increasing coastal risk 22 , particularly in developed areas with great exposure of coastal populations 23,24. Quantifying the value of mangroves as natural coastal defenses is crucial for incentivizing their conservation and restoration for the benefit of nature and people 25. The economic value of mangroves for services that rely on conserving them, such as flood protection, is typically not included within national...

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Flood Protection Benefits of Mangroves

Menéndez

Losada

Torres-Ortega

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

327

155

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Better valuations of the protection services from coastal habitats could inform decisions to meet multiple objectives in risk reduction and environmental management 35 – 38 . One important pathway through which these services may be considered is in national economic accounts 35 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global flood protection savings provided by coral reefs

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coral reefs can provide significant coastal protection benefits to people and property. Here we show that the annual expected damages from flooding would double, and costs from frequent storms would triple without reefs. For 100-year storm events, flood damages would increase by 91% to $US 272 billion without reefs. The countries with the most to gain from reef management are Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and Cuba; annual expected flood savings exceed $400 M for each of these nations. Sea-level rise will increase flood risk, but substantial impacts could happen from reef loss alone without better near-term management. We provide a global, process-based valuation of an ecosystem service across an entire marine biome at (sub)national levels. These spatially explicit benefits inform critical risk and environmental management decisions, and the expected benefits can be directly considered by governments (e.g., national accounts, recovery plans) and businesses (e.g., insurance).

show abstract

“…Reef restoration has been shown to be cost effective in comparison to the development of artificial submerged breakwaters [5,58]. Active coral-reef restoration measures may include biological restoration, physical restoration, and artificial reefs [22,59].…”

Section: Implications For Coral Reef Management and Coastal Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Status of Coral Reefs and Its Importance for Coastal Protection: A Case Study of Northeastern Hainan Island, South China Sea

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study evaluated the status of coral communities at the fringing reefs in the northern South China Sea, and their potential role in maintaining nearby coastline stability of northeastern Hainan Island (Puqian Bay, Hainan Bay). Thirty-nine coral species were recorded with mean coral cover of 5.3%, and are dominated by massive Galaxea, Platygyra and Porites. The coral communities were clustered into two groups (Clu-HNB and Clu-PQB) corresponding to different stable coastal conditions. Coral communities at the Hainan Bay with higher diversity and greater cover corresponded to relatively stable coastline, whereas those at the southern Puqian Bay (with the lowest coral diversity and spatial coverage) corresponded to severe coastline erosion. This work provides some direct evidence that declined coral reefs would weaken their functions to maintain a stable coastline, resulting in severe coastal erosion. It is also useful to help coastal managers and local people pay more attention to the importance of coral reefs in coastal protection and encourage them to change their ways to get sustainable use of coral reef resources. It may be beneficial to inspire or initiate coastal engineering to manage coasts with natural coral reef solution.Sustainability 2019, 11, 4354 2 of 13 destructive practices [1,7]. Global coral reefs have experienced dramatic decline over the past decades [8][9][10], which consequently reduces their coastal defense capacity [11]. Therefore, nearly 200 million people may lose risk reduction benefits from reefs if these are lost or degraded [5].Coral reefs provide coastal protection by absorbing and dispersing a significant part of the wave energy that otherwise would be transmitted onshore [4,12]. The critical function as breakwaters is based on the biological calcification of reef-building organisms, especially scleractinian corals, to generate massive carbonate structures that allow them to keep pace with the sea level. Live coral communities also provide geometrical complexity and increase surface roughness, which helps to dissipate wave energy through friction and wave breaking [13]. Thus, the coral species diversity and its cover pattern are important not only for increasing functional redundancy but also for maintaining the ecosystem stability of coral reefs which are vital to protect the coastline behind the reefs [14,15]. Coral mortality in the reef flat increases the wave energy that reaches shores and leads to more severe coastal erosion [16].Many previous studies focused on the coral reefs monitoring using effective ecological indicators and the changes of coral communities led by climate change, and particularly on the reduction of coral diversity, coverage, and distribution range that indicate the decline of coral reefs and related possible economic loss [8,17,18]. But very few studies are concerned about the relationship between coral reef degradation and coastline erosion [19,20]. This hampers our understanding of the important role of coral reefs in coastal protection and management ...

show abstract

Economic valuation of coral reef ecosystem service of coastal protection: A pragmatic approach

Cited by 67 publications

References 28 publications

The Global Flood Protection Benefits of Mangroves

The Global Flood Protection Benefits of Mangroves

The global flood protection savings provided by coral reefs

The Status of Coral Reefs and Its Importance for Coastal Protection: A Case Study of Northeastern Hainan Island, South China Sea

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About