Study: U.S. Costal Communities Face More Than $400 Billion in Seawall Costs by 2040

Report includes first-ever cost estimates for sea-level rise adaptation and rankings by coastal cities, counties, states, and congressional districts in the contiguous U.S. 

Coastal communities in the contiguous U.S. face more than $400 billion in costs over the next 20 years, much of it sooner, to defend coastal communities from inevitable sea-level rise, according to a new report released today by the Center for Climate Integrity in partnership with the engineering firm, Resilient Analytics. 

This is approaching the cost of the original interstate highway system and will require the construction of more than 50,000 miles of coastal barriers in 22 states by 2040, half the time it took to create the nation’s iconic roadway network. 

The first-of-its-kind report titled, “High Tide Tax: The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas” includes rankings of the estimated sea-level rise adaptation costs by city, county, congressional district, and state. Using moderate (not worst-case) sea-level rise projections for the year 2040 and storm surge expected to be seen every year, the report identified 132 counties where costs will exceed $1 billion, and 14 states where costs for these minimal defenses will exceed $10 billion. The top ten states are listed below, complete rankings can be found here.  

Read the full report on IGSD

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Taxonomy

• Water Security
• Environment
• Climate Change
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Environment Evaluation
• Climate Change Adaptation
• Climate Change Resilience
• urban water security