Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside
Thursday November 19, 2015
It’s been another month and now there’s another study on the costs and benefits relating to flooding. This week’s entry is Oregon State’s Steven Dundas who writes on the costs and benefits of artificial dunes on the Jersey shore.
Overall, Dundas shows these dunes provide a net benefit, especially by reducing net exposure of the NFIP. This is to be expected since natural barriers are known to reduce flood damage and can mitigate the risk. But that savings in exposure is compensated by a $1700 loss per house. That’s a problem because that has to be paid by either the state or Federal government. Further, these costs are highly regressive since they support a few, generally wealthier homeowners, at the expense of everyone else.
Image by Alistair Young / Flickr.