Dr. Rob Young on the Growing Pains of Coastal Adaptation

September 18, 2022

Our semi-regular checkin with Dr. Rob Young

On this episode, hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham check in with Dr. Rob Young on the state of coastal adaptation in the wake of the major investments made in the space this year. A professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, Rob is critical of the Corps's cost/benefit analysis and argues that coastal policy needs to better account for the true costs and benefits of shore protection projects in order to generate adaptive incentives. It's a great show with one of our favorite guests! Only on ASPN!

Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.