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Nicolas Levy

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The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coasts

by Gilbert M. Gaul

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read in August 2021

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Nicolas Levy said: " This is the second book I have ready by Gilbert Gaul; both were excellent and both seriously dented my enjoyment of things I used to naively love - college football and the Jersey Shore. This book takes on the latter topic, framed more broadly as the This is the second book I have ready by Gilbert Gaul; both were excellent and both seriously dented my enjoyment of things I used to naively love - college football and the Jersey Shore. This book takes on the latter topic, framed more broadly as the increasing vulnerability of the U.S. East Coast to climate hazards. Gaul combines deep research (his citations include hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents reviewed) with an engaging, almost novelistic prose, which makes this book both informative and fun to read.

Centering the book around the development of New Jersey's Long Beach Island, Gaul traces the evolution of post-WW II economics, cultural tastes, and policies that encouraged development along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts as more Americans sought vacation homes by the beach. He details the 1962 Ash Wednesday Storm, which was one of the first in the Northeast to seriously damage coastal infrastructure, and served as a harbinger of damage to come. The book then traces the evolving science around climate change and flood risk in the 1970s and 80s, as policymakers wrestle with trying to limit coastal development on the one hand, while implementing a National Flood Insurance Program that essentially gives municipalities and homeowners a blank cheque to rebuild after storms. A key theme in the book is the mismatch between collective interests at the state and federal governance levels, vs. intense pressure from coastal municipalities to rebuild bigger and better after each storm, lest their tax base dwindle.

While most of the book is focused on Gaul's home state of New Jersey - which perhaps surprisingly, is the second most vulnerable state to increased flood risk after Florida, at least based on the number of vulnerable houses - he does travel to other spots along the Southeast Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Through his travels and interviews, we get a taste of flood resilience best practices in Charleston, SC, which still seem nowhere near enough to manage the looming risks of sea level rise over the coming decades. We also see how homeowners along the nation's back bays, who tend to be considerably less wealthy than owners of beachfront property, are at even higher risk of eroding household assets in the coming decades.

This is an engaging and informative read to better understand the policy debates, or lack thereof, around disaster relief and rebuilding that will only intensify as the seas rise. While America for the most part has successfully avoided a hard conversation about how to contend with such risks, the twin propellors of climate change and unfettered coastal development will surely force such a discussion in the years to come. ...more "

Aug 15, 2021 08:47PM · see review