Q&A: What does coastal resilience look like for US communities?
March 11, 2026
Coastal areas face risks from sea-level rise and storms. Here are lessons from existing projects that can help communities prepare.
Across the country, coastal communities face growing pressure from rising seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding. These challenges aren’t new, but the pace is picking up. Local government leaders and staff are often asked to respond quickly, secure funding, and make long‑term decisions—even as plans, data, or coordination across agencies are still taking shape.
Some states have been working through these issues for decades. In places like Louisiana and Texas, communities have learned hard lessons from major storms and coastal changes. Their experience, along with insights from communities that have recently faced disasters, offers practical guidance for cities and counties working to strengthen their own coastal resilience efforts.
In this Q&A, Steve Mathies, Ignacio Harrouch, and Stephanie Rogers discuss what coastal resilience and restoration look like today and how local governments can take action early. They also talk about how communities can move forward with clearer priorities and greater confidence.
Q: What are communities around the US facing when it comes to restoring, protecting, and building coastal resilience?
Stephanie: The challenges are layered: physical, financial, and social. Many communities know they need to act, but they often hit obstacles long before a project ever breaks ground. Some of that is due to complex federal processes; some of it comes from disagreements among agencies, regulators, or community groups.
Natural physical processes are a key element of restoration designs incorporated by our team for the Terrebonne Basin Barrier Island Restoration Project in Louisiana.
From Texas and California to the Eastern Seaboard, many areas are experiencing new sedimentation patterns, increased erosion, and growing flood risk. These issues don’t exist in isolation. Coastal systems are affected by upstream decisions, reservoir management, and shifting storm behavior.
Steve: There’s also a broader national shift happening. More communities recognize the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. Louisiana saw this firsthand after Hurricane Katrina. That experience reshaped how the state thinks about and plans for coastal risk.
Q: Can you talk about a few communities that are doing coastal restoration well? What solutions have they put in place?
Steve: Louisiana’s master planning didn’t happen overnight. It took decades of public engagement, technical development, and steady implementation to get to where we are now. The state’s willingness to learn from both successes and failures helped it build one of the most complete coastal programs in the country. These projects range from river diversions and flood protection to marsh restoration and pump stations. They pair built infrastructure with ecosystem restoration, including wetlands, river‑marsh connections, and living shorelines.
These approaches help reduce storm impacts, but they do more. They help reclaim cultural and economic relationships with water.
Stephanie: Aransas County, Texas, offers another strong example of doing things right. Local governments created a resilience effort where partners met regularly to plan and prioritize coastal projects. When Hurricane Harvey hit, they were ready. The county had already set priorities, engaged key groups, and aligned local needs with available funding. This early work helped Aransas County secure funds faster and begin recovery sooner than nearby communities.
Ignacio: The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) in Louisiana is another strong model. Their master plan process pulls together parishes, levee districts, researchers, and federal partners around one science-based strategy. The structure allows the state to advance major restoration, protection, and nonstructural programs at the same time.
Bayshore Drive Shoreline Stabilization Project in Rockport, Texas.
Q: What does this teach communities about partnerships and collaboration?
Ignacio: Strong partnerships are what make the difference between projects that stall and projects that get built. Here’s another good example: the Morganza to the Gulf Hurricane Protection Project in coastal Louisiana. It is designed to reduce hurricane flood risk in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. The project includes a system of levees, floodgates, and a navigation canal lock.
The project was initially authorized based on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reports dating back to 2002 and 2003. After Hurricane Katrina, construction costs grew beyond what was authorized. That put federal funding at risk. But knowing the state still faced flood risk, local and state partners identified sources of non-federal funding to begin construction on the project. This local effort reduced near‑term risks, kept the project moving, and maintained federal design standards.
Over time, adaptive engineering and close coordination with the USACE helped lower costs without compromising performance. And, ultimately, it unlocked federal construction funding, which allowed the project to move forward in 2021.
Q: What sets these successful efforts apart from others?
Ignacio: Securing buy-in across all levels matters. When levee districts, mayors, parish leaders, state agencies, and federal partners share the same priorities, it creates a unified voice. And speaking with one voice carries a lot more weight. Well-briefed, strong local leadership can be powerful in moving a project forward.
Strong partnerships are what make the difference between projects that stall and projects that get built.
Morganza to the Gulf also shows what alignment can look like in practice. Local and state leaders invested early, showing real commitment. That helped maintain the project’s momentum. That steady support carried the work through federal review, redesign, and reauthorization.
That steady coordination across partners made it easier to keep the project moving toward federal participation.
Ultimately, communities need to treat resilience as a collaborative process, not a single project. When they do, they tend to see better long-term outcomes.
Q: What can other coastal communities learn from these states’ efforts? Why does it matter right now?
Steve: The message we keep coming back to is simple: don’t wait for a disaster. After a major flood or storm, urgency spikes. But that’s also when competition for funding skyrockets.
Funding is often a multiyear journey. Authorization is only one step; securing actual dollars is another. Communities that have plans ready and have already built partnerships are in a much stronger position to get resources.
The storm surge from Tropical Storm Alberto batters the coast in Aransas County, Texas. The Bayshore Drive
Stephanie: Today, we also have tools that didn’t exist 50 years ago. Predictive models. Storm simulations. And artificial intelligence. These can all help communities make better coastal resilience decisions well before the next major storm.
Ignacio: Morganza to the Gulf shows why early planning and flexibility matter. As requirements changed, the team refined the design to control costs while still meeting updated standards. That helped keep the project moving; it also positioned it to receive federal construction funding when it opened up.
Don’t wait for the next storm
Urgency is growing. Climate pressures are building, competition for funding is intensifying, and technology to help inform decisions and reduce risk is more advanced than ever. But communities don’t have to wait for the next storm to start building a safer future.
Communities can build more resilient coastlines over time. Nature‑based solutions, working partnerships, ongoing monitoring, and science‑based planning are tools to make it work.
