In 2022, the U.S. interagency sea-level rise (SLR) technical report was released to provide the best available scientific insights regarding how and when sea level is expected to change. Supplemental to this document an application guide was released to aid practitioners who wish to incorporate sea-level rise (SLR) projections into their design for new projects situated along the coast.

Because small changes in elevation result in significant changes along the coast, it is crucial to have actionable scientific information about changing sea levels; however, the information is often highly technical and is accompanied with deep uncertainty. Application guides such as these translate and support application of the science when implementing coastal projects to ensure they will be sustainable for their project service life. This talk will review the co-development of the application guide with practitioners to ensure it is usable and useful and an example of how it was used for a Gulf restoration.

The Town of Dauphin Island secured grant funding to design, permit, and construct two living shorelines along the northeastern and southern sections of Aloe Bay. The overall goal was to restore the ecological functions and services of Aloe Bay marshes to remedy ecological harm from natural forces and provide risk reduction for critical infrastructure along the shoreline of Aloe Bay. The Aloe Bay shoreline has experienced up to 200 feet of shoreline retreat over the last several decades due to daily and extreme wave conditions, and interruptions to the natural alongshore sediment transport process by manmade features installed over the past several decades. To ensure that the more than 6 acres of constructed intertidal marsh and upland habitat would be sustainable throughout the project life, the engineering team integrated SLR leveraging the application guide. This talk will describe how and at what points those considerations were integrated.