Sustainable & Connected: How beach dunes play a vital role in Santa Monica’s climate resiliency

August 29, 2024 11:03 AM
by Nico Predock

Santa Monica is known for its gorgeous beach, the miles of white sand and sparkling water an iconic destination for residents and tourists to lounge, swim and frolic.

What is less well known is the crucial role that Santa Monica State Beach plays as a resource for the city’s climate resiliency.

Santa Monica’s 2019 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, or CAAP, identifies coastal sea level rise and flooding as one of Santa Monica’s most substantial climate threats, and calls for the enhancement of natural systems, such as beach dunes, to prevent coastal flooding.

The city’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment, in partnership with The Bay Foundation, or TBF, has been restoring portions of Santa Monica beach with low dunes, away from active recreation areas, to enhance its ability to act as a buffer that can protect homes, roads and critical infrastructure such as bike paths, telephone lines and parks.

In addition to being the first line of defense for the coast, the public benefits of these projects include beautifying the developed coastline, educating the public about the importance of natural landscapes, and promoting tourism based on environmental values. Perhaps most importantly, these projects have served as examples of strategies that balance priorities of both coastal resilience and public recreational use.

The Beach Dune projects Phase 1 and 2

In 2016, the Santa Monica City Council authorized an agreement between the city and TBF to conduct a pilot restoration of a three-acre portion of Santa Monica State Beach. The project was then physically and biologically monitored over the next five years.

As stated in TBF’s Year 5 Annual Report, the pilot project “allowed vegetation to grow, encouraged sand hummocks (small dunes) to form along fence lines and within the project area, provided comprehensive science-based monitoring data to inform nature-based beach restoration solutions, and is bringing back a rare coastal habitat type to the Los Angeles region.”

With the success of the first pilot, TBF secured funding from the Refugio Beach Oil Spill Settlement through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to pursue an additional beach restoration project in Santa Monica, “Phase 2,” to restore an additional five acres of sandy coastal habitats.

Phase 2 was installed on March 14 of this year, and will be monitored over the next five years, with similar results expected.

Dune: Part 3

To further demonstrate low-cost natural coastal adaptation solutions in the face of climate vulnerabilities such as sea level rise and coastal flooding, staff proposed a Phase 3 of the project, this time to install an additional 43 acres of coastal sand dunes with California native vegetation on Santa Monica beach.

At its Aug. 27 meeting, the Santa Monica City Council heard a presentation about the project and voiced support for the successful implementation of Phase 3.

The project will consist of a checkerboard-type footprint of smaller polygons, ranging from one to two acres in size, spanning the beach from the border with Will Rogers State Beach to the border with Venice Beach. To balance the need for recreational space and access to the shore with conservation and coastal resilience, some of the polygons will be near the shoreline and the other polygons will form a back dune habitat adjacent to the bike path, parking lots and the upper portions of storm drain outfalls.

This scenario maximizes shoreline protection, shoreline access, storm drain beautification, and wildlife considerations while also leaving plenty of recreational space and maintaining existing resources, such as volleyball courts and permitted use sites. It will bring significant, long-lasting ecological and coastal resilience benefits to Santa Monica.

Extensive outreach has been and will continue to take place through project implementation through a series of meetings, stakeholder workshops, and public field trips, and the input will be incorporated into the final footprint of the project.

Read the full staff report on the Santa Monica Beach Dune Restoration Phase 3 here.

Authored By

Nico Predock
Sustainability Analyst

Authored By

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