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When imagining shoreline erosion, many people first think of pounding waves eating away at vulnerable oceanfront beaches. But sheltered coastal areas—such as bays and estuaries—also experience land loss from erosion and sea level rise. A frequent response of property owners and coastal resource managers is to armor shoreline with bulkheads and other hard structures, solving the erosion problem, but also potentially harming the coastal environment.

A new management approach in Virginia is broadening erosion control options to include “living shorelines,” which provide erosion control benefits while also enhancing the natural shoreline habitat.

“People are not used to living on the water’s edge and seeing the land that they paid so much for eroding away—or look like it’s eroding away,” says Shep Moon, coastal planner for Virginia’s Coastal Zone Management Program. “They look around at what their neighbors have and see a bulkhead or revetment, and that’s what they want.”

To introduce living shorelines into Virginia’s shoreline management vernacular, coastal managers have taken a multifaceted approach that includes research, information sharing, training, policy guidance and changes, demonstration projects, and outreach.

“We’re seeing more interest in living shorelines and use of living shoreline treatments,” says Tony Watkinson, deputy chief of the Habitat Management Division of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. “I think the promotion of the concept and education of the public and property owners has helped with their acceptance of the techniques and realization that it addresses what they’re trying to do.”

Common Response

Virginia’s approximately 5,000 miles of shoreline features marshes, beaches, and tidal mudflats that provide habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals. These marshes and other low-lying lands also are predicted to be one of the areas of the country hardest hit by relative sea level rise caused by climate change and geologic subsidence.

A common way of protecting the shoreline from erosion and sea level rise is to build hard structures, such as bulkheads, stone revetments, and seawalls.

Armoring the shorelines of a few properties is of little concern, but a large number of hard structures along a shoreline may threaten landscapes, public access, recreational opportunities, and natural habitats, and could reduce the number of species that depend on these habitats.

Cumulative Harm

Researchers at the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science maintain a database of permitting activity in the state’s tidal shorelines. With questions about the potential impact of hard structures, the researchers used this database to conduct a cumulative impact assessment that combined the total effect of multiple structures on multiple shorelines.

“The data was shocking,” says Karen Duhring, a shoreline advisory scientist for the Center for Coastal Resources Management. “Permitting these on a piecemeal basis doesn’t capture the cumulative harm.”

The study found that an average of 16 to 18 miles of new shoreline structures were being permitted in Virginia each year from 2000 to 2007. “We don’t know how many were actually built,” Duhring notes, “but those were permitted by coastal regulators.”

“We knew why shorelines were being hardened,” Moon says. “We just needed to find ways to promote better alternatives.”

Natural Mimic

While the definition is still under debate, living shorelines are erosion management techniques—such as the strategic placement of plants, stone, sand, and other structural and organic materials—that are used primarily in areas with low to moderate wave energy, and are designed to mimic natural coastal processes.

“They do a couple of different things,” says Walter Priest, habitat restoration specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Restoration Center. “They allow the shoreline to continue to function in an ecological fashion that is still of value to the environment.” They may also allow for the gradual landward retreat of fringe wetlands as sea levels rise, and are proving to be resilient in severe storm events.

“The concept of living shorelines has been around for a while,” Moon says, “but with simpler methodologies of basically marsh grass planting and stabilization using natural techniques.”

Coastal managers in Maryland have been incorporating living shorelines since the 1980s, which has helped generate North Carolina’s and Virginia’s interest in the concept.

Developing a Strategy

In 2005, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program began working with many partners to promote the use of living shorelines in the state. To spur the initiative, the program included numerous living shoreline projects in its overarching shoreline management strategy that is funded with $750,000 in Section 309 grant monies over the five years beginning in 2006.

“There’s been a lot going on” in the three years since funding began, Moon notes.

Taking the Initiative

The living shoreline initiative was kicked off in December 2006 with a two-day Living Shoreline Summit for shoreline management contractors, landowners, environmental groups, coastal resource managers, scientists, and others on the concept and construction of living shorelines, with case studies.

“Coming away from the workshop, I decided to try to implement living shorelines at the local level,” notes Kevin Du Bois, an environmental engineer for the City of Norfolk. “I think that was their hope—that people would leave the meeting looking for potential living shoreline projects.”

Since the summit, Norfolk has implemented a dozen successful public and private living shoreline projects.

The Center for Coastal Resources Management has created an on-line course for marine contractors, as well as training programs to help marine contractors and others directly involved with the planning and construction of living shoreline projects.

A living shoreline brochure and website was created for land use decision makers, landowners, and contractors.

Institute scientists are also conducting a wide variety of research, including evaluating and documenting the habitat value of living shorelines, and refining the design of living shoreline techniques.

In the Hopper

There are many more projects already completed or in the hopper, Moon notes, including a living shoreline design manual being created by Scott Hardaway, a geologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and ongoing reporting of research findings that will inform policy.

“There are so many different initiatives that are a part of this,” Moon says. “We’re working with waterfront property owners, decision makers—local and state—and contractors and agents. We realized up front that we really had to include everybody in the process.”

He adds, “It’s all evolving at the same time. It has to work that way. You can’t create demand without supply, and you can’t do any of that without having the policies in place.”

For more information on Virginia’s living shorelines management approach, contact Shep Moon at (804) 698-4527, or shep.moon@deq.virginia.gov, or Tony Watkinson at (757) 247-2255, or tony.watkinson@mrc.virginia.gov. For information on Virginia Institute of Marine Science research or training, contact Karen Duhring at (804) 684-7159, or karend@vims.edu. To learn more about local implementation, contact Kevin Du Bois at (757) 621-2564, or kevin.dubois@norfolk.gov. For more information on living shoreline techniques, contact Walter Priest at (804) 684-7385, or Walter.Priest@noaa.gov.

Additional Resources

• The Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s website on living shorelines, http://ccrm.vims.edu/livingshorelines/

• The Virginia Living Shoreline Summit proceedings, www.cbtrust.org/site/c.enJIKQNoFiG/b.2055179/k.4E47/Living_Shorelines_Grant_Program.htm

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s restoration portal, habitat.noaa.gov/restorationtechniques/public/shoreline_tab1.cfm

• The Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program’s information website on living shorelines, www.deq.state.va.us/coastal/livingshore.html