Nature-based solutions could protect Newfoundland homes from coastal erosion, experts say
Experts are suggesting nature-based solutions for coastal erosion while Newfoundlanders look to save homes and cemeteries from rising sea levels, but Canada’s coastal risk management policy is not keeping pace with the impacts from climate change.
“While stories of children stumbling over bleached human remains might make for a killer opening to a fairy tale, climate scientists warn that what is happening to coastal cemeteries in Newfoundland will get worse,” reports the Toronto Star.
Nearly 13.5% of Canadians, or 4.8 million people, live within 10 kilometres of the country’s coastline. While scientists project climate change will ultimately raise sea levels across the globe, parts of Canada will see greater that average increases, and will therefore suffer greater than average impacts. Areas along the East Coast are expected to experience the greatest rates of sea level rise, says a 2021 report from the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute.
In Newfoundland and Labrador—where 90% of residents live along the coast—the impacts of eroding coastlines are already becoming a reality, as landslides and risks to property become commonplace. The erosion is having a particularly disquieting outcome for locals who sometimes find parts of human skeletons from waterfront cemeteries along the beach, the Star says.
As residents look for solutions, experts have segregated coastal protection measures into two categories of infrastructure: hard, engineered protection measures, and nature-based solutions that mimic natural systems to manage flood and erosion risk. Unlike hard infrastructure like sea walls, nature-based solutions use sediment or vegetation to stabilize coastlines, with benefits like improved biodiversity and carbon sequestration. According to the Water Institute, “nature-based solutions, in particular, have a vital role to play in managing coastal flood and erosion risk in Canada.”
Canada boasts the longest coastline in the world and is undergoing climate warming at twice the global average rate, and coastal communities are among the top six areas of climate risk facing Canada. But the mounting concern for coastal communities like those in Newfoundland has not sped up development of the federal government’s coastal risk management framework, the Star writes.
“Perhaps the greatest challenge in Canada, and globally, in preparing for climate change and sea level rise along the coast, is a limited sense of urgency to act,” says the Water Institute. Although people were able to become complacent to a global sea level that remained constant for roughly 6,000 years, the onset of human-induced climate change is making rising sea levels an urgent issue.
“Decision-makers in Canada must realize, sooner rather than later, that the sea level of the past will not be the sea level of the future, and prepare coastal communities accordingly.”