Managed Retreat Can be an Opportunity to Start Fresh

Sooner or later, the ocean will win

By Rep. Terri Cortvriend and Sen. Victoria Gu / R.I. General Assembly

No matter how rich you are, you can't stop the ocean

In 2023, our state took a big step to enshrine Rhode Islanders’ right to the shoreline: up to 10 feet above the last high-tide line. But what happens as sea level rise pushes the high-tide line up to homeowners’ and businesses’ seawalls?

Our beaches and shoreline are fragile ecosystems that naturally migrate upland as sea levels rise. But as homeowners and businesses increasingly put up rock walls and fortify their property, the beach has nowhere to go. When that sandy beach disappears, there goes one of our greatest natural assets, and the tourism economy on which Rhode Island’s economy relies erodes along with it.

Bottom of Form

Even seawalls, however, are not a permanent defense for property in some places as sea levels rise and storm severity and frequency continue to grow. On our coast and inland, several neighborhoods — most recently some along the Pocasset River in Cranston and Johnston — in our state have experienced such severe and frequent flooding that they qualified for federal funding for buyouts. In those situations, both the government and the property owners agree that the dangers and costs of continuing to live in those areas are simply too high.

Planning to prevent disaster, however, is always safer and less costly than responding to it.

“Managed retreat” is a planned effort to identify disaster-prone areas and relocate homes, businesses, and infrastructure there to safer places before they are destroyed.

Managed retreat can often protect other areas nearby, since the removal of human-made structures can help reduce erosion and flooding, and the restored area becomes a natural place for water to go.

Broaching this topic as a community is difficult, since the emotional losses that can be involved are as legitimate as the financial concerns. But it is a necessity, because rebuilding in locations that will flood again and again is dangerous and comes with high costs, often borne by the public.

We have introduced legislation (S2903, H8169) to offer a financial strategy — catastrophe bonds — to plan for, prioritize, and fund managed retreat and relocation assistance for people who take a voluntary buyout and relocate within the same town or adjacent town. At a time when the Trump administration is denying and delaying federal disaster aid, our bill would create a funding mechanism that acts like statewide disaster insurance, providing rapid liquidity when needed.

While federal voluntary buyout programs generally focus on residential properties, we could use this program for commercial properties too, helping to relocate mixed-use areas that are often clustered along our coasts and riverbanks.

One Rhode Island town — Warren — has already embarked on this effort. Its long-range plan will move the downtown Market Street neighborhood, which is projected to be 9 to 12 feet underwater during high tides by 2100, to higher ground in a specific area of Metacom Avenue. Creation of that plan has enabled Warren to apply for funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help.

Warren’s ambitious, thoughtful plan is one that serves as an excellent model for how to approach managed retreat realistically and inclusively, leveraging the opportunity to develop new resilient, well-planned public and private spaces.

Our 400 miles of coastline are treasured in Rhode Island, but they also present immense challenges to our densely populated coastal communities, which were mostly built at times when high tides did not reach nearly as high as they do today. Resiliency planning and investment is critical to protect lives and property in the Ocean State, and it must include conversations about managed retreat. As Warren’s Market Street plan shows, managed retreat can be an opportunity for imperiled areas to move away from risk and loss, and start fresh where they can build new neighborhoods that are safe and reflect a vision they have chosen.

Rep. Terri Cortvriend, D-Portsmouth, chairs the House’s Study Commission on Climate Change Impacts and Solutions. Sen. Victoria Gu, D-Westerly, previously served as chair of Charlestown’s Climate Resiliency Commission. Together they have sponsored several bills to protect coastal access and address climate-related concerns.