R.I. Coastal Agencies Lead Tours to Better Understand Shoreline Issues
October 9, 2024
A group of more than 40 people recently gathered at Barrington Town Beach for an evening walk that featured large poster board of aerial views of the local shoreline access points and the town’s planning director talking about green infrastructure projects along the coastline.
Hosted by the Coastal Resources Management Council, Rhode Island Sea Grant, and the University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute, these walking tours feature discussions of ongoing research and bring together experts in shoreline processes, resource economics, and the law. To date, walking tours have been held in Charlestown, Bristol, Westerly, and Barrington. More walks are planned for next year.
Sea Grant staff said the tours spotlight projects taking place at the water’s edge in municipalities across the state. Each tour invites local experts to speak about community efforts at each site.
Nathan Vinhateiro, science director for the Coastal Institute, is leading a Sea Grant-funded project called Sustained and Equitable Access to Rhode Island’s Coast in a Changing Climate (SEA-C) and has talked to residents about how communities will be impacted by sea level rise or from storms.
Vinhateiro noted sea level has risen a foot in Rhode Island in the past century, during which the shoreline at some local beaches has retreated 20-40 feet or more. And sea level rise is accelerating.
“The forecast now is that we’re going to see another foot of sea level rise in the next 10 to 15 years, and close to two feet by 2050,” he said.
The Environmental Protection Agency joined the most recent tour and shared how the federal agency is using public data to understand the public’s visits to Rhode Island beaches and other shoreline points along Narragansett Bay.
An environmental economist with the EPA’s Office of Research and Development at URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus, Nate Merrill is using traditional methods such as car counts and surveys to monitor beach access, as well as newer methods of cell phone data and aerial imagery, to understand visitation to beaches and the distances people travel to access the shore.
In addition to understanding which shore sites are more heavily used, cell phone data indicates that shore visitors cross socioeconomic and racial lines and groups, according to Merrill.
“The next step is to understand the potential barriers to accessing coastal sites, and ask whether climate change might impact different populations differently,” said Emi Uchida, professor and chair of URI’s Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics.
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