Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Policy Lab
| When |
Jul 29, 2010 09:00 AM
to Jul 30, 2010 12:00 PM |
|---|
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) is the main artery of a uniquely integrated economic and ecological system. Previously thought of as a safe route for marine cargo, we now use the natural environment of the AIWW for both commerce and recreation. Coastal development around the waterway has become an important economic driver for the surrounding counties. And, as never before, we have begun to understand the tight linkages between the ecological functions of the surrounding estuaries, the regional movement of sediments, and the navigability and value of the waterway. Despite the important role of the AIWW in the coastal economies of more than five states, the AIWW is increasingly plagued by shoaling and the infilling of channels that threaten to make many stretches of the waterway unsafe for navigation.
The management and funding of the AIWW was originally designed solely with the view of the AIWW as a means for transporting cargo. Over time, an increase in recreational activity has changed the waterway from a single use to a multi-use body of water. Unfortunately, the scope of federal and state management of the waterway does not reflect this change of use or the interstate importance of the AIWW. Federal and state level management regimes vary widely in the degree to which they participate in the direct funding of waterway maintenance.
The AIWW suffers from a lack of uniform principles and practices between states resulting in problems that include shoaling and an unhealthy estuarine system.
The narrow directives that helped to create the AIWW do not lend themselves well to the management of the waterway as an integral part of the larger estuarine and coastal economic and ecological systems of which it is a part. The maintenance of the waterway too often is thought of as a problem plagued with the questions of how to fund dredging and where to put dredge spoils. An alternative ways of thinking can be explored and applied to the AIWW. For example, the issue of waterway maintenance can be better considered in the larger context of sediment management by asking questions about the origin of the sediments and the ability of watershed and estuary management to reduce the sedimentation and shoaling of the AIWW. These sediments when removed from the waterway could serve as important resources for beach nourishment, dune creation, and other ecological restoration.
Increasingly, states are finding it beneficial to work together on a regional basis to manage economies and ecosystems that do not stop at the state border. Fisheries have long been managed at the regional level, but now regional management has emerged for coastal and ocean management (e.g. the West Coast Governor’s Agreement, the Gulf of Maine Council), climate change (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative), and now regional approaches are being suggested for marine spatial planning. Recently, the Governor’s South Atlantic Alliance was formed with an eye towards managing marine and coastal issues facing the south Atlantic United States. Many of these new regional alliances have been slow to establish themselves as practical policymaking bodies because the problems they seek to address are often extremely large and complex. The AIWW offers the possibility of developing regional, ecosystem-based management on a smaller scale. A smaller scale management framework can allow policy solutions, regional policymaking templates, and an integrated ecological and ecosystem framework for coastal and marine management to be developed from the ground up.
