Typical climate change adaptation for coastal areas are often focuses on "grey infrastructure" options (e.g. engineering approaches like dams, levees, sea walls and channels). Incorporation of "blue-green infrastructure" options (e.g. allowing the conversion of agricultural land to wetlands) can be as cost effective, especially if the value of ecosystem services are recognized. This approach has been adopted in a variety of geographies, including this study as part of The Nature Conservancy's Coastal Resilience Ventura (CRV) project.

Working with input from local stakeholders, two alternative adaptation scenarios were developed. One alternative was focused on grey infrastructure and the other incorporates blue-green infrastructure alternatives. This presentation will focus the incorporation of a Net Ecosystem Services Analysis approach used to combine financial metrics with environmental metrics for decision making. We used Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA), an environmental annuity model developed as a tool for Natural Resource Damage Assessments, to scale the value of ecosystem services provided over time under each climate change adaptation alternative. HEA provides an effective way to weigh climate change adaptation alternatives by blending environmental gains and losses with traditional monetary metrics in a theoretically consistent manner. The results show that nature-based approaches to climate change adaptation can provide benefits in terms of reduced damages that are comparable to coastal armoring approaches. Conclusions address the benefits and costs for the coastal armoring approach, the benefits and costs for the nature based approach, and how the value of ecosystem services contribute to the question of the preferred approach to climate change adaptation.

Derek Pelletier is an aquatic ecologist with 14 years of experience in environmental consulting. He specializes in water quality issues, ecological risk assessments and natural resource damage (NRD) assessments related to contaminated sediments and groundwater. Derek has expertise in using habitat equivalency analysis for estimating natural resource damages; scaling ecological risks and injury to biologic resources based on habitat quality; identifying and prioritizing restoration projects; modeling food web transfer/bioaccumulation and chemical fate and transport; managing data; understanding biogeochemical cycling of nutrients; and developing screening levels, toxicity reference values and species sensitivity distributions for evaluating potential effects or injuries to aquatic life.