Griggs, G., 2024. Can we make coastal communities resilient to sea-level rise? Journal of Coastal Research, 40(3), 571–576. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208.

“Resilient” is a term that has gotten increasingly widespread usage in recent years as a solution or response for coastal communities to the well-documented global rise in sea level. The message that is usually conveyed seems to be that if we can make coastal communities resilient, everything will be fine and we will have solved the challenge of how to adapt to a rising sea. The federal government and some coastal state government agencies are providing grant money to encourage coastal communities to develop plans to become more resilient. This is an appropriate time to ask what would a resilient coastal community look like and can we actually make a community resilient to future sea-level rise, and if so, for how long?