Making Room for the Rivers

When one thinks of a nation that has been successful in holding back the encroachment of the oceans, the Netherlands, perched precariously on the edge of the North Sea inevitably come to mind. So, when the Dutch decide that after hundreds of years of trying to wall the Sea out, that sea level rise associated with global climate change is going to make them shift strategies, it makes sense for the rest of the world to take heed.

Building bigger floodgates and higher levees is no longer an option. Instead, the Dutch are "embracing the water", letting the water back onto landscape, and allowing rivers, swollen with rainfall to re-connect with their floodplains. Many of these low areas have been farmed in the past, often because they have been laden with the nutrient-rich sediments deposited by the rivers during storms. Now, however, the Dutch government is paying farmers for their properties, so the natural hydrology can be restored.

Similar efforts are quietly taking place in the US, from the Missouri River system to Napa Valley and Texas.

As has been said here before, during the current re-consideration of the General Development Plan, it is incumbent upon the County Executive and planning staff to take this issue under serious consideration, not only for Bay and river fronting properties, but for those along streams and creeks higher in the landscape that, under healthy conditions, can arrest flooding hazards downstream.

Legislature Decides Not to Tie Allstate's Hands

Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee wisely decided against passing a bill that would have required insurers to write homeowners' insurance policies in coastal areas that some have deemed a poor investment because of their risk.

As I've said here before, there's no reason private (or public) insurers should subsidize poor and/or dangerous investment choices on the part of individuals. Floodprone areas, or those susceptible to other sorts of natural catastrophes shouldn't be built on from this point forward. It's that simple.

Allstate to Limit Coverage in Maryland

Last week, Allstate Corp. announced that it would stop providing new homeowners' insurance coverage in all or part of 11 counties surrounding the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries¹ based on concerns that oceanic warming could cause stronger storms to hit the northeast. Some have already questioned the move, but I, for one, applaud it.

Insurance companies, which are still reeling from the damage created by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, seem now to be taking seriously the concern that a warmer Atlantic Ocean could cause more violent hurricanes (For the current state of the science, check out NOAA's "Atlantic Hurricanes & Climate" [pdf]). While the scientific community is still deliberating on the relationship between hurricane severity in the Atlantic and global warming (the period from 1945 to 1970 had what appears to be a similar level of storms), there is little question that several other factors have lead to the increased destructiveness of these storms. Foremost among them, is "rising concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal regions."

In the US, at least, both private and public insurers have subsidized this colonization of the coastline, and have made it economically viable for individuals to put themselves and their homes in harms way, often destroying millions of acres of vital wetlands and coastal barrier features in the process.

It's incumbent that FEMA, in particular, stop writing new flood insurance policies countrywide and prepare the program for a gradual phase out. As homes and businesses covered by the program are flooded or destroyed by storms, policy owners should be given a payout with the understanding that they can either, 1) take the funds and purchase property outside the floodzone, or 2) use the funds to rebuild their home on its prior site, but that in either case, they will not be provided flood insurance into the future. It's patently ludicrous for the American taxpayer to subsidize development which is environmentally destructive, dangerous to its inhabitants, and a poor investment.

¹ The changes take effect in February 2007, and will apply to residents in Calvert, Dorchester, Somerset, St. Mary's, Talbot, Wicomico and Worcester counties and parts of Anne Arundel, Charles, Prince George's and Queen Anne's.

Additional reading material:

The Beaches are Moving: The Drowning of America's Shoreline. (1983). Wallace Kaufman and Orrin H. Pilkey Jr.

THE BEACHES ARE MOVING: A Look At The Rising Sea Level And Its Impact On Coastline Communities, Particularly Ocean City, Maryland (1997). Shauna Johnson.

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast. (2003). Mike Tidwell.

Extreme Weather Woes

On a beautiful day like those we had this past weekend, it's difficult (not to mention unpleasant) to conjure up images of category 5 destruction like that left in the wake of Katrina other other hurricanes that have hit the US in the past several years. But, according to several recent reports, including one in last week's Post, experts are issuing dire warnings about the likelihood of more extreme storms hitting the Atlantic basin in the next 15 to 20 years.

Extreme weather cycles combined with overdevelopment in waterfront areas during the more sedate periods and destruction of valuable wetland buffer have left many coastal areas in the Atlantic and Gulf coast exceedingly vulnerable to destruction.

Certainly many Anne Arundel County residents, particularly those in waterfront Annapolis and south county, suffered massive damage from Isabel in 2003. Unfortunately, according to another report, this time from the Maryland Department of the Environment, the county is vulnerable to upwards of $1 billion in damage from future flooding because of its proximity to the Bay and abundance of waterfront housing.

Keeping homes in Anne Arundel County out of the 100-year flood plain, and those in hurricane alley out of the waterfront regions most likely to flood or be destroyed by storm surge might, as well as restoring wetland buffer, might not be the most popular decisions, but they are ones that will help save lives and billions of dollars when we weather the next inevitable storm.

NOTE: If you're in Annapolis (or Virginia), don't forget that tomorrow is election day!