Researchers have created a coastal evolution model to analyze how coastal management activities on barrier islands, meant to adapt to sea-level rise, can disrupt natural processes that are keeping the barrier islands above water. Replenishing beaches and clearing over-washed roads may not be the best long-term strategy.
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“Counterintuitively, the more successful humans are in preventing storm impacts, the less resilient the barrier system becomes in the long term,” said co-author Laura Moore, professor of coastal geomorphology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.