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[WAVES CRASHING]

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Coastal erosion is
the wearing away

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of material along a shoreline.

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And on the Virginia
Eastern Shore,

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this is driven
primarily by waves,

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and these waves are
driven by storms.

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[THUNDER]

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[WIND CHIMES]

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All storms bring waves, but it's
actually your smaller storms,

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your low-energy but more
frequent storms, that

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are driving waves that break
immediately on the marsh edge

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and eat away at
the sediment there.

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There's a lot of
population growth

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and valuable infrastructure
along Virginia's Eastern Shore

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that coastal landowners
want to protect.

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UVA's been working out
here to characterize

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marsh vulnerability to erosion
and see what lines up to be

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the most vulnerable shoreline.

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We see seawalls,
we see bulkheads,

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but there are several
trade-offs associated

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with hardened structures.

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When waves come in and hit
those hardened structures,

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they reflect off of that.

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And that energy
tends to scour out

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the bottom making the water in
front of your structure even

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deeper, and that deeper
water actually allows

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more and more wave energy
to approach the shoreline.

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So we have to come up
with other solutions.

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Living Shorelines are a
nature-based shoreline

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stabilization technique
that's designed

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to control erosion while
maintaining ecosystem

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functions.

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They're made of materials
like natural vegetation,

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artificial oyster reefs.

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The oyster reef takes
away energy from the wave

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and causes its height to
decrease impacting with less

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energy, causing less erosion.

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The Nature Conservancy and
the University of Virginia

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work together to try to
get the best information

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to the coastal communities
offering shoreline

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stabilization recommendations
so that they're more resilient

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and can better adapt
to coastal hazards.

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Having these reefs here helps
to make the edge of our marsh

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more resilient and by having
these big wide healthy marshes,

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they can help to make our
communities more resilient.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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There are a ton of
people who are relying

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on the Chesapeake Bay
and the Eastern Shore

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for their livelihood.

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And I know that my
science will have

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an impact on the
coastal community

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here at the Virginia
Eastern Shore.

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To be able to serve
them in this way,

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I feel very proud to be
a part of the effort.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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