Our team of engineers, designers, ecologists and social scientists from around the US was tasked with designing an adequate flood defense system for George Lane Beach, a public beach located in North Weymouth, MA. Plans to raise the height of the existing seawall in response to significant flooding from winter storms are underway, supported by a grant of $129,000 through the state of Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Program. In addition to mitigating coastal flood risk, the proposal also needed to protect residents' connectivity to the mainland during storm events and preserve an acceptable degree of public beach accessibility.

Together, our team combined insights from the field with climate change projections, coastal morphological conditions and demographic data to produce engineering specifications for an integrated seawall design. We sourced latest estimates of sea level rise in the local area, modeled hydrological conditions including fetch and runup, and considered cost, constructibility, permitting, ecology, site accessibility, and co-benefits to the Weymouth community. Additionally, our proposal suggests holistic strategies to perform construction to minimize social-ecological disruption and CO2 emissions, such as using excavated material from the water-retaining bioswales as fill for the raised road.