Coral reef restorations can be optimized to reduce coastal flooding hazards

This paper provides a physics-based evaluation of how coral restoration can reduce coastal flooding for various types of reefs. Wave-driven flooding reduction is greatest for broader, shallower restorations on the upper fore reef and between the middle of the reef flat and the shoreline than for deeper locations on the fore reef or at the reef crest. These results indicate that to increase the coastal hazard risk reduction potential of reef restoration, more physically robust species of coral need to be outplanted to shallower, more energetic locations than more fragile, faster-growing species primarily being grown in coral nurseries. The optimization and quantification of coral reef restoration efforts to reduce coastal flooding may open hazard risk reduction funding for conservation purposes.

Hazard mitigation strategies can help finance reef restoration in different ways. First, post-disaster recovery funding could support restoring coral reefs for coastal defense infrastructure. Second, because coral reefs protect coastal communities, reef restoration could be funded through such mechanisms as pre-disaster hazard mitigation funds. Third, the insurance industry can support incentives for habitat restoration by insuring their coastal protection service or through new resilience insurance mechanisms for coral reef restoration projects. By allocating ever-limited funds to well-designed coral restorations, vulnerable coastal areas may receive the much-needed support to restore their adjacent reefs to support tourism, fisheries, and recreation via such mechanisms as pre-disaster mitigation, post-disaster restoration funding, and/or insurance.