As climate change progresses, Crescent Beach 'would turn into a wetland,' engineer says

The City of Surrey is hatching a plan to buy out roughly 400 Crescent Beach homes to prepare for the prospect of rising sea levels.

City of Surrey engineer Matt Osler says it may take decades before climate change floods Crescent Beach, but the city is already zeroing in on a "managed retreat" of homes and businesses as the preferred solution.

"When you start to look 80 years into the future with the [predicted] one metre rise of sea level, the costs of maintaining an existing diking system start to grow exponentially," Osler told On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko.

"The existing dike would have to be raised by about two and a half metres. When it's at that height, costs such as erosion control and other operating costs start to go up considerably.

"When you look long term, it is very much the most sustainable and fiscally prudent approach."

Osler says the effort for Crescent Beach could be a decades-long process that would buy and remove homes, businesses and infrastructure as sea levels rise.

"Over time, the area would turn into a wetland," he said.

He says the city has been working with residents and communities for two years on a plan to deal with climate change impacts on Crescent Beach. 

Other short-listed options included widening and flattening the shoreline; building a barrier island to break waves before they hit the shoreline; and finally to build a massive concrete barrier.

He says the environmental impacts and risk exposure from those options would be much greater than the managed retreat.

The plan will be subjected to further analysis before it goes before council in about a year, Osler says.