A Decade and a Half of Coastal Erosion

By Allyson Haskins

O’ahu is a small island that resides in Honolulu County, Hawaii. Most have probably never heard of this island or the daily challenges it faces. If you have heard of this small yet full community, you probably have heard of its breathtaking views of the Koolau or Waianae mountain range. The idea that this community stands the risk of coastal erosion every day does not plague your mind at all until you look deeper into the community. 

Residents who live in O’ahu along its Kamehameha highway on the Windward coast suffer the constant and treacherous battle against eroding highways. Luckily for these residents, emergency repairs have begun along the highway to secure certain locations such as Kanehoe, but this project doesn’t come without its own downfalls as well. While coastal erosion is combatted as well as it can be, residents now experience increased traffic on the highways, often leaving them with rush-hour delays. Residents have reported that this conflict with erosion and repairs has been consistent for at least a decade and a half. 

What is to blame for these erosion levels on the Kamehameha highway? Well, that would be the sea-level rise and high-surf exposure that impact the roads due to climate change. In this manner, climate change has impacted the daily lives of these residents through coastal erosion, and sadly, these struggles have become the new normal for them, as it doesn’t seem that change is anywhere close to happening. 

It has been estimated by the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, which is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that more than 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands are lost annually in all of the United States, which costs approximately 500 million dollars per year in property loss. 

Along with the emergency repairs in O’ahu, other small strategies to combat coastal erosion include shoreline stabilization, coastal restoration, and beach nourishment. Shoreline stabilization is the gradual removal of sediments from the shoreline in a way that keeps the slope gentle, while coastal restoration includes marsh creation, habitat restoration, beach repair, among other steps. Lastly, beach nourishment is the practice of adding large quantities of sand or sediment to beaches to decrease coastal erosion. 

Nevertheless, these are merely adaptation and mitigation procedures that have been utilized for years in the United States, and frontline locations such as O’ahu are still experiencing coastal erosion which seems will never end. The most efficient way to tackle this problem is to first combat climate change and work toward better environmental conditions. The least we owe to the residents of O’ahu and the Earth in general is to make these efforts in earnest. 

Art Credits: Maxine Shore

Image Credits: Earth.com