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Dianne R Phillips is a attorney in Holland &
Knight'sBostonoffice
The Boston Green Ribbon Commission just released its
250-page Report on
Feasibility of Harbor-wide Barrier Systems, finding that
shore-based climate adaptation solutions have significant
advantages over harbor-wide strategies for Boston and surrounding
communities.
In response to the City of Boston's planning efforts
launched in 2016, known as Climate Ready Boston, the Sustainable
Solutions Lab of UMass Boston undertook a feasibility study for a
harbor-wide flood protection system funded by the Barr
Foundation. The purpose of the study was to provide a
preliminary assessment of the feasibilities and potential cost,
benefit and environmental impact of three specific harbor-wide
barrier configurations taking into account potential interference
with shipping channels and other harbor uses.
The specific barrier configurations studied included an Outer
Harbor Barrier (OHB) from Winthrop to Hull, an Inner Harbor Barrier
(IHB) between Logan Airport and the Seaport area of South Boston,
and a Metro Dike Barrier from Swampscott to Cohasset. This latter
alternative was dismissed due to its impacts on shipping,
navigation and fishing. The OHB configuration involved 3.8
miles of gated barrier with an additional 9.3 miles of shore-based
protection in Hull, Winthrop and Revere. The IHB system was a
shorter length of barrier between Logan Airport and the Seaport,
but would require 18 miles of shore-based protection systems to the
north and south to function properly.
Detailed analyses of both alternatives are provided in the
report, including conceptual designs, cost evaluations,
hydrodynamic analysis of tidal attenuation, water velocity and
environmental impacts. In addition, the economic analysis
evaluated impacts on shipping, recreational use, and potential
ecological changes in the abundance, distribution and behavior of
fish populations impacting commercial and recreational
fishing. Lastly, the report contained a social vulnerability
analysis to determine if either configuration had a
disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations. All of
these impacts were compared to the concept of shore-based
adaptation solutions, focusing particularly on cost and timing of
implementation.
Based upon these analyses, the report concluded "it is
clear that shore-based adaptation strategies, if effective, have
significant advantages over harbor-wide strategies for Boston, at
least for the next few decades...." Specifically,
"while a harbor-wide barrier system could manage some coastal
flooding with perhaps minimal environmental impacts and moderate
impacts on harbor users, its cost-effectiveness is low and its
operational life would be limited." This is due, in large
measure, to the limited potential to adapt or adjust the barrier
once it is in place and the uncertainties of climate change over
time. In short, Boston is not Rotterdam and the Dutch solution, heralded by many, is
not likely feasible.
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