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.2014 May 13:5:3794.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms4794.

The effectiveness of coral reefs for coastal hazard risk reduction and adaptation

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The effectiveness of coral reefs for coastal hazard risk reduction and adaptation

Filippo Ferrario et al. Nat Commun..

Abstract

The world's coastal zones are experiencing rapid development and an increase in storms and flooding. These hazards put coastal communities at heightened risk, which may increase with habitat loss. Here we analyse globally the role and cost effectiveness of coral reefs in risk reduction. Meta-analyses reveal that coral reefs provide substantial protection against natural hazards by reducing wave energy by an average of 97%. Reef crests alone dissipate most of this energy (86%). There are 100 million or more people who may receive risk reduction benefits from reefs or bear hazard mitigation and adaptation costs if reefs are degraded. We show that coral reefs can provide comparable wave attenuation benefits to artificial defences such as breakwaters, and reef defences can be enhanced cost effectively. Reefs face growing threats yet there is opportunity to guide adaptation and hazard mitigation investments towards reef restoration to strengthen this first line of coastal defence.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Example of coral reef environments and sample transects.
Transects along which wave attenuation was estimated for the three environments are indicated: reef flat (F), reef crest (C) and whole reef (WR). Measurements of wave parameters were compared between an offshore control (open circle) and a landward treatment (solid circle) in each transect. (a) Cross-section of the Camel Rock, Guam, fringing reef, from US Army Corps of Engineers SHOALS lidar data. (b) Aerial view of Asan Bay, Guam (data available from the US Geological Survey).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Coral reef and wave attenuation meta-analysis results.
Values are the average percentage of (a) wave energy reduction, and (b) wave height reduction in the three reef environments. Error bars represent 95% confidence interval. When the confidence intervals do not overlap, the averages are considered significantly different from zero (P<0.05). ‘n’ reflects the number of independent experiments.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Wave energy reduction as a function of maximum incident wave energy.
The relationship was investigated across (a) reef crests (n= 9) and (b) reef flats (n=17). Only experiments for which data were available in J m−2 were used. The asymptotic equations for the relationship between wave energy reduction (y) and maximum incident wave energy (x) at the reef crest and reef flat are (y=91.2/(1+52.4/x)) and (y=66.8 × [1−e(−x/185)]), respectively. The plottedx values are (J m−2 × 103) for visual representation purposes, whereas in the equations they are simply in J m−2. Ina, the regression did not include the outlier (open circle) as reef crest was comparatively very deep (5 m, see Methods). Inb, exclusion of the point at maximum wave energy does not substantially change the regression line (for example, asymptote changes from 66.8 to 61.6).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Wave energy dissipated across the whole reefs as a function of maximum incident wave energy.
Only experiments for which data were available in J m−2 were used (n=12). Trend line for the linear regression is (y=0.97x;R2=0.9). Both thex axis and the trend line have been broken to help the display the relationship across the full range of incident wave energy.
Figure 5
Figure 5. The effects of reef flat width on wave attenuation.
Percent reduction of both wave energy (n=21) and wave height (n=21) is reported as a function of coral reef flat width. Only experiments for which reef flat width was available were used. Each point is the percent wave attenuation for each experiment with trend lines (wave energy reduction:y=86.2 × [1−e(−x/210.2)]; and wave height reduction:y=62.2 × [1−e(−x/213.3)]).
Figure 6
Figure 6. The number of people who may receive risk reduction benefits from reefs by country.
The countries are grouped by the number of people living below 10 m elevation and within 50 km of a coral reef as indicated in the legend. Countries in grey either have no data or no people meeting these conditions. Global and country maps are accessible fromwww.maps.coastalresilience.org.
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