ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
This article is part of the Research TopicCoastal Adaptation Through Nature: Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) ResearchView all 12 articles
Adaptation Pathways Identify Effective Strategies for Mitigating Damage on a Developed Barrier Island as Sea Levels Rise
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of South Alabama, Mobile, United States
- 2The Water Institute of the Gulf, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
- 3Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, Houston, TX, United States
- 4Anchor QEA, Spanish Fort, AL, United States
- 5passivhausMAINE, Freeport, Maine, United States
- 6Moffatt & Nichol, Mobile, AL, United States
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Adaptation pathways are responsive planning tools intended to help decision-makers incorporate uncertainty of a future scenario while optimizing the use of their resources. In this project, an adaptation pathway was generated for a developed barrier island community, Dauphin Island, Alabama, USA. The project period was October 2019 to April 2022, with community engagement beginning in January 2020. Initial meetings were held with the community to identify vulnerable locations and co-develop adaptation strategies that were evaluated throughout the project. The effectiveness of adaptation strategies to reduce damage was estimated with a process-based numerical model, XBeach, which simulated inundation and morphological change due to Hurricane Nate (2017) and several sea-level rise scenarios. Depending on the Dauphin Island priority area, "damage" was defined as saltwater contamination in a freshwater lake, sand deposits on Dauphin Island's main through route, or decreased sediment volume. When damage was sustained for a given strategy and sea-level rise scenario, a "tipping point" was reached and triggered the implementation of another strategy. Adaptation pathways were generated for two focus locations, with one location having two tipping points resulting in two pathways. This project revealed adaptation pathways are dependent on definitions of tipping points and location even within the same community. Community engagement revealed vulnerable locations that were previously unrealized and identified 'reasonable' or 'unreasonable' adaptation strategies based on community needs and desires. While the pathways produced for Dauphin Island are likely not transferrable to other locations, both findings are key to effective application of the adaptation pathways approach and generating a pathway accepted by the community.
Keywords: XBeach, Inundation, Morphological change, Community Engagement, DauphinIsland, Hurricane Nate
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Patch, Collini, Delaney, Bellais, Heming and Caraway. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stephanie Patch
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