Predicting Sea Level Rise Impacts on Ag Production
This project investigated sea level rise impacts on saltwater intrusion and explore methodologies to detect and quantify land subsidence and river channel aggradation changes that may impact agricultural viability now and in future climate conditions; this informed the Snohomish Conservation District’s Snohomish Agriculture Resilience Plan and was funded by the The ESRP Learning Program.
The Snohomish Conservation District led a collaborative effort with the Snohomish Sustainable Lands Strategy, UW Climate Impacts Group, Cardno, and NOAA to evaluate how climate change, sea level rise, and vertical land movement are likely to affect agricultural systems in the tidally influenced Lower Snohomish and Lower Stillaguamish river floodplains. This information supports estuary restoration as an appropriate response to protecting regional agricultural viability under sea level rise by describing the value of a strategic retreat from vulnerable low-lying areas, and encouraging a renewed focus on protecting agricultural lands and irrigation water resources at higher elevations.
The project team developed and implemented a land subsidence, channel aggradation, and saltwater intrusion study coupled with community engagement activities to create a community vision for agricultural resilience in Snohomish County. This project complements and leverages several ongoing agricultural resilience and salmon habitat restoration project development initiatives in the Snohomish and Stillaguamish estuaries and watersheds, including: 1) restoration project development in the Snohomish and Stillaguamish floodplains; 2) flood modeling, groundwater modeling, and creation of several decision support tools to inform agricultural sustainability and resilience planning and land use decision-makers. The information created through this project and the complementary ongoing initiatives are expected to inform development of estuary floodplain salmon habitat and agricultural land management strategies by the Sustainable Lands Strategy.
PRISM Snapshot Predicting Sea Level Rise Impacts on Agricultural Production - Final Report Link to the June 2020 Webinar presenting this work
Relationships
- broader: riverscape commons mapping
- broader: sea level rise;agriculture
- located in: stillaguamish;snohomish
- related to: esrp
- related to: snohomish conservation district
Source: Predicting Sea Level Rise Impacts on Ag Production on Salish Sea Wiki