How We Are Thinking About Resilience
Coastal and community resilience is one of the goals of restoration projects and programs in the Gulf. Resilience refers to the ability to “bounce back” or recover after some kind of emergency or hazardous event. These events can include natural events like hurricanes, sea level rise, and flooding; or manmade events like chemical and oil spills. A community can be resilient in many ways, including economically, socially, and structurally.
The GEMS project team, advisory council, and workshop participants identified the following restoration outcomes to be resilience relevant. Descriptions of how each outcome is relevant to resilience can be found in the fourth column of the table below. Outcomes listed as having potential resilience linkages will not necessarily be resilience-linked for every project where that outcome occurs. Additionally, it is important to note that restoration outcomes listed here do not represent all aspects of community and coastal resilience; there may be additional outcomes, and associated metrics, that you would want to consider in a monitoring plan focused on resilience. This list is simply meant to illustrate how the restoration outcomes identified by the GEMS project link to Gulf coastal and community resilience.
Resilience-linked GEMS Restoration Outcomes:
| Outcome Category | Specific Outcomes | Outcome Description | Resilience Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jobs | Aquaculture jobs | Aquaculture jobs created by an aquaculture project | When people in the community are employed they enjoy greater levels of economic resilience and are able to respond better to unexpected shocks. Also, diverse job markets are known to be more resilient because the community does not depend on one industry. |
| Recreational fishing jobs | Recreational fishing jobs supported through increased/ healthy fish populations supported by habitat restoration projects | ||
| Restoration jobs | Restoration jobs created by installing coastal restoration projects | ||
| Economic Activity | Related to fish harvest | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated through increased fish harvest supported by healthy/ increased populations of fish as a result of habitat restored | Increased economic activity in a particular community through jobs, labor, and income allow that community to be more resilient to external shocks that harm the economy. |
| Related to shellfish harvest | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated through increased fish harvest supported by healthy/ increased populations of fish as a result of habitat restored | ||
| Related to recreational fishing | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated through increased fish harvest supported by healthy/ increased populations of fish as a result of habitat restored | ||
| Related to restoration spending | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated by spending on restoration projects | ||
| Related to local businesses | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) changes influenced by the installation of the project itself (e.g. if construction routes people around certain businesses) | Short-term reductions in economic activity in a particular community through reduced jobs, labor, and income that are a result of disruptions caused by the project might affect that community’s resilience to external shocks. | |
| Related to agriculture | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated by agricultural production that is impacted by the existence of the project. | Increased economic activity in a particular community through agriculture related jobs, labor, and income allow that community (or even individual farmers) to be more resilient to external shocks. | |
| Related to recreation and tourism | Economic activity (jobs, labor, income) stimulated by recreation and tourism that is enhanced because of existence of the project | Increased economic activity in a particular community through recreation and tourism jobs, labor, and income allow that community to be more resilient to external shocks. | |
| Costs | Costs to property owners | Cost to property owners of establishing a sewer connection on their property | Initial costs of sewer line connections may in fact decrease a particular household’s economic resilience, but over time if maintenance costs for a sewer connection result in significant savings for a household, there may be long-term increased economic resilience. |
| Property damage | Damage to property caused by flooding or erosion | Damage to property is a direct reflection of structural resilience, and repair costs for property damage similarly link to the property owner’s economic resilience. | |
| Restoration Expenditures | n/a | Spending on materials/ equipment/ labor for restoration projects | Increased spending at businesses in a particular community allow that community to be more resilient to external shocks. If spending takes place at businesses outside of the target community, then this may not affect local resilience. |
| Shoreline Property Protection | From flooding | Property protected from flooding due to installation of a coastal habitat or other infrastructure that diverts water/waves | The ability for shoreline property to withstand external stressors like flooding and erosion represents a facet of structural resilience. |
| From erosion | Property protected from erosion due to installation of a coastal habitat or other infrastructure that reduces erosion | ||
| Health | Mental health and psychological well-being | Change in mental health or psychological wellbeing associated with the existence of a coastal habitat, cultural values provided by a coastal project, or recreational opportunities supported by that project | Community members’ health and associated capabilities are essential to resilience; a healthy community is better able to respond to and cope with external shocks. However, individual health outcomes represented here may not influence a community’s resilience in a meaningful way. |
| Physical health | Physical health affected by volunteering or working on a restoration project | ||
| Nutrition for communities | Changes to dietary nutrition based on fishing or hunting made possible by a restoration project | ||
| Public safety (related to evacuations) | Changes in flooding/ damage to evacuation routes | ||
| Seafood associated disease | Changes in rates of seafood associated disease linked to changes in water quality caused by water quality enhancement projects | ||
| Skin and respiratory effects of toxin exposure (from HABs) | Changes in rates of HAB toxin exposure linked to changes in water quality caused by water quality enhancement projects | ||
| Waterborne disease | Changes in rates of waterborne disease linked to changes in water quality caused by water quality enhancement projects | ||
| Drownings | Changes in the number of drownings tied to changes in beach morphology of re-nourished beaches | ||
| Mosquito-borne disease | Changes in rates of mosquito borne disease linked to changes in mosquito habitat tied to restoration projects | ||
| Cultural Values | Knowledge | Changes to knowledge of restored habitats or restoration outcomes based on engagement with a project site or the existence of restoration in one’s community | This outcome has an indirect link to resilience—when community members gain increased knowledge and understanding of their environment in the context of threats to resilience, this can help spur increased public support for future similar restoration projects that would add to resilience. |
| Other cultural values | Other cultural values supported by the project (existence value, livelihood option, persistence of family/cultural traditions) | Strengthened (or maintained) cultural values can be linked to community ties and increased social capital, which in turn lead to increased social resilience. | |
| Property Value | Changes to property value near a restoration project site, caused by changes to aesthetics or recreational opportunities provided by the project | Increases in property value can be linked to an individual household’s economic resilience, and at a larger scale increases in a community’s property values (which can lead to a larger tax base) can be linked to economic resilience at the community level. | |
| Social Disruption | Social disruption caused by stormwater flooding (e.g. critical facilities closures, business closures) | Critical facilities (e.g. hospitals, schools, government buildings) are important for a community’s ability to respond to hazardous events, therefore changes in their closure rate impact a community’s resilience. | |
| Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions | The social cost of the carbon (or other greenhouse gases) stored or released by the project | Carbon sequestered by restoration projects represents an aspect of climate resilience at the global level. The social cost of carbon sequestered by those projects represents avoided costs to society that would have resulted if that carbon had been released to the atmosphere. Those avoided costs can be viewed as a measure of economic resilience. However, because climate resilience and social costs of carbon are measured at global scales these measures are not a very good indicator for resilience at a local/ community level. |