PURPOSE
Kiawah Island , like many other coastal communities , has faced many challenges in recent years due to severe weather , tidal flooding , development , and other environmental pressures . The increase in frequency and intensity of these issues over time has placed increased concern on our capacity to adapt and recover from natural hazards . Along with addressing current challenges , Kiawah Island is also anticipating future , long-term challenges posed by sea-level rise and climate change .
As these conditions continue to progress , negative impacts to both our human and wildlife communities will continue to occur without interventions to mitigate and adapt to environmental challenges . Traditional interventions to react to these challenges have typically involved gray infrastructure practices to fortify shorelines and facilitate stormwater conveyance . While this provides short-term relief on current issues , gray infrastructure is not able to adapt to changing situations , have the potential to exacerbate existing issues , and often do not address a variety of vulnerabilities the community faces .
There has been growing interest in using nature as a form of infrastructure to help coastal communities better adapt to changing situations and improve long-term resilience outcomes . By supporting natural infrastructure , benefits are provided to the local wildlife community which produce direct benefits to the human community that depend on the services they provide . This thinking has shifted focus away from gray infrastructure and towards incorporating nature-based solutions to address current issues and anticipate future challenges . These naturebased solutions provide unique , proactive solutions to restore and enhance the functioning of our ecosystems which allow our community to meet resilience objectives through the reinforcement of our natural infrastructure . Collectively , nature-based solutions have the potential to greatly improve our capacity to respond to changing coastal conditions in the future and enhance our resilience outcomes .
This document is focused on highlighting novel concepts and solutions for addressing community resilience on Kiawah Island following engagement exercises with key organizational stakeholders . Included within is guidance on best practices for addressing challenges to the changing coastal environment through nature-based solutions . These efforts helped to develop a collective position and serve as a catalyst for the expanded use of green-infrastructure practices . This manual provides guidance for successful implementation of these practices to bolster resilience and allow the enjoyment of natural habitat on Kiawah Island for generations to come .
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NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS MANUAL FOR KIAWAH ISLAND