Rolling Easements
Permanent Link:

Material Information

Title:
Rolling Easements
Creator:
James G. Titus
Publisher:
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Notes

Abstract:
Rising sea level is inundating low-lying lands, eroding beaches, and exacerbating coastal flooding. In undeveloped areas, landowners have generally allowed wetlands, beaches, and barrier islands to adjust naturally to rising water levels, by migrating inland. In developed areas, by contrast, governments and landowners have usually attempted to hold back the sea by adding sand to eroding beaches or erecting dikes, seawalls, revetments, and other shore protection structures. Very little developed land has been given up to the rising sea—especially along estuaries where individual landowners can usually protect their own property without government assistance. Coastal development continues, as new communities replace forests and farms, and large houses replace small seaside cottages. With few exceptions, the new residents believe that they (and their heirs) can own the land forever if they choose. But permanent coastal development might not be economically or environmentally feasible everywhere. Most scientists expect a warmer climate to cause the sea to rise more rapidly in the future. Defending coastal development from the rising sea would prevent wetlands from migrating inland, expose large numbers of people to the hazard of living below sea level, and often cost more than what the property being protected is worth. This document presents an alternative vision, in which future development of some low-lying coastal lands is based on the premise that eventually the land must give way to the rising sea. We provide a primer on more than a dozen approaches for ensuring that wetlands and beaches can migrate inland, as people remove buildings, roads, and other structures from land as it becomes submerged. Collectively, these approaches are known as rolling easements. The question about which—if any—of these approaches should be adopted is beyond the scope of this primer. We do not evaluate how much of the coast should be protected or how much of it should give way to the rising sea. Our objective is merely to provide a summary of the tools that could be adopted and their possible rationales, to help encourage a thorough consideration of the many available options for responding to rising sea level. We do not exclude possible approaches merely because they have not been tested or would require existing policies to change. We hope that this primer helps communities to consider the full range of options for anticipating the consequences of a rising sea.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

dpSobek Membership

Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise