Shoreline Adaptation Land Trusts: Concept for Rising Sea Level

Rising sea level is now unstoppable despite the important work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the international goals to limit warming.  Financial and tax policies that recognize the need to plan for multiple meters of sea level rise would be an efficient tool for cooperative efforts between the private and public sectors to begin as orderly a transition as possible. A special purpose public land trust, herein termed a Shoreline Adaptation Land Trust (SALT) could be a vehicle to facilitate and encourage the vast adjustments that large ocean incursions will necessitate.  This paper is part of the ISGP Climate Change Arctic Program (ICCAP) conference “Sea Level Rise: What’s Our Next Move,” Oct. 2-3, 2015, St. Petersburg, Florida.