Communities in California are learning harsh lessons of sea-level rise. The rate of beach erosion increases, which in turn destroys much of what people have built. At this beach in San Fransisco, parking lots, bike lanes, and buried utility lines are being destroyed by faster than predicted erosion. Thus, there is a choice: build a bigger wall to hold back the sea, or retreat. Some cities have chosen to retreat.

Up and down the California coast, some communities are deciding it’s not worth trying to wall off the encroaching ocean. Until recently, the thought of bowing to nature was almost unheard of.

But after futile attempts to curb coastal erosion — a problem expected to grow worse with rising seas fueled by global warming — there is growing acknowledgment that the sea is relentless and any line drawn in the sand is likely to eventually wash over.

“I like to think of it as getting out of the way gracefully,” said David Revell, a senior coastal scientist at ESA PWA, a San Francisco-based environmental consulting firm involved in Goleta and other planned retreat projects.

The issue of whether to stay or flee is being confronted around the globe. Places experimenting with retreat have adopted various strategies. In Britain, for example, several sites along the Essex coast have deliberately breached seawalls to create salt marshes, which act as a natural barrier to flooding.

Excellent story via the Washington Post