Coral Reef Restoration Can Help Prevent Flood-Driven Pollution Along Florida’s Coast

While coral reefs are well known for their ability to buffer coastal communities from storm-driven waves, this study is the first to assess how restoring reefs could lower the risk of flood-related pollution along Florida’s extensive 460-kilometer coral reef-fringed coastline.

By mitigating wave-driven flooding, coral reef restoration could significantly reduce the likelihood of contamination from key infrastructure such as petroleum storage tank systems, onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems, and wastewater treatment plants. Reducing the risk of pollution translates into major environmental and economic benefits. The study estimates that the present value of infrastructure protection and pollution prevention provided by restored reefs amounts to 3.4 million USD, with some high-risk areas exceeding 1.5 million USD per kilometer in benefits.

These findings demonstrate that coral reef restoration is not just a nature-based solution for coastal protection, but also an effective strategy for reducing environmental risks as well as providing additional socioeconomic benefits. By preventing flood-related contamination, restoring reefs can help safeguard both communities and ecosystems, making them a valuable tool in climate resilience and disaster mitigation efforts.

Examples of environmental contamination risk reduction due to decreased coastal flooding provided by coral reef restoration. Petroleum storage tanks, pSTs, with above ground in yellow and underground in red. b Wastewater treatment plants, WWTPs. c Onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems, OSTDSs. The dark blue areas indicate the areas that are in a flood hazard zone for current coral reefs and the light blue areas indicate the reduced flood zones with coral reef restoration. Orange areas represent the spatial extent of wastewater treatment plants and red areas indicate properties containing an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system. Coral reef restoration is projected to reduce the size of coastal floodplains, reducing the flooding of properties containing pSTs, OSTDSs, and WWTPs and the resulting environmental contamination.