Managing Natural Assets to Increase Coastal Resilience
Town of Gibsons British Columbia
June 2021
Communities all along Canada’s coasts are facing infrastructure challenges. The structures that people originally built to protect their settlements from storm surges are showing their age, especially as they try to protect against bigger and more frequent storms that climate change is causing.
To address these challenges, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative piloted the Coastal Resilience project in the Town of Gibsons, B.C. and Pointe-du- Chêne, New Brunswick. This report focuses on the Town of Gibsons. The project developed and tested a Coastal Toolbox (CT) model to determine how enhancing coastal natural assets like subtidal eelgrass, coastal vegetation or beach sediments could reduce flood and erosion impacts, especially if used alongside conventional grey infrastructure.
