The big squeeze: maintaining the green infrastructure role of estuarine foreshores while adapting to sea-level rise

A global challenge concerns reconciling population growth and increasing built infrastructure with foreshore ecosystems that are 'squeezed' against a rising sea levels, hampering their ability to deliver life-sustaining ecosystem services. This paper tests established sea-level rise strategies - fortification, accommodation, and retreat - using a city-centre adjacent estuarine case study in Western Australia to understand the implications for foreshore ecosystem service provision. The results indicate that some retreat of urban areas will be required, combined with the migration of the foreshore reserves landward, to maintain ecosystem service functions over the longer term.

Automated summary

The challenge of reconciling population growth and infrastructure with rising sea levels requires the retreat of urban areas and migration of foreshore reserves to maintain ecosystem service functions.