Lindsey Sheehan, Kristina Kunkel, Philip King, Dana Murray, and Nicholas Garrity, 2022. “We’ll take Manhattan: Preserving an urban (Southern California) beach in the 21st century”, Shore & Beach, 90(3), 3-16.
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https://doi.org/10.34237/1009031
We’ll take Manhattan: Preserving an urban (Southern California) beach in the 21st century
Lindsey Sheehan, P.E. (1), Kristina Kunkel (2), Dr. Philip King (3), Dana Murray(4), and Nicholas Garrity, P.E.(5)
1) Environmental Science Associates, 819 SE Morrison Street, Suite 310, Portland, OR 97214
2) Humboldt State University, P.O. Box 981258, West Sacramento, CA 95798
3) San Francisco State University, Economics Dept., San Francisco, CA 94132
4) City of Manhattan Beach, 1400 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
5) Environmental Science Associates, 626 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90017
The City of Manhattan Beach is updating its Local Coastal Program-Land Use Plan (LCP-LUP), a planning document that regulates development in the city’s coastal zone and establishes a long-range vision for the community. Before embarking on updating the LCP, the city and the community need to better understand coastal vulnerabilities with sea level rise, to analyze the physical and economic risks, and to implement actions to prepare and adapt to the impacts of sea level rise. The authors conducted a Sea Level Rise Risk, Hazards, and Vulnerability Assessment (ESA 2021b) and Adaptation Plan (ESA 2021a). As part of the Adaptation Plan, we compared a “no action scenario” with a potential adaptation scenario designed to mitigate future coastal hazard risks. The economic and fiscal impacts of the no action scenario were compared to the relative costs and benefits of the adaptation scenario. The analysis indicates that sea level rise and the resulting beach erosion may negatively impact the city of Manhattan Beach’s ability to provide visitors with adequate recreational capacity by mid-century. The analysis also indicates that Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles County will lose significant tax revenues without adaptation, approximately $107 million in transient occupancy taxes (TOTs) and $39 million in county (sales) taxes. Adding to beach capacity through dune restoration and nourishment would preserve $65 million in non-market value through 2100. Given these values, it is likely that nourishment or dune restoration would yield the most net benefits as adaptation strategy in the future.