Neighbourhood vs. Individual Property Scale Coastal Protection: A Case Study in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia

Individual property owners throughout the Salish Sea are faced with the need to adapt their shorelines to accommodate potentially degradative coastal processes, such as sea level rise and erosion. Simultaneously, there is a wide-spread push towards natural and nature-based approaches to coastal protection; however, these types of approaches (such as beach nourishments) are often ill-suited for implementation on individual properties, with frontages typically less than 100 m long. This challenge typically requires undesirable trade-offs during design to accommodate the physical constraints of an individual property. Alternatively, designs may be implemented on a neighbourhood-scale with fewer design trade-offs, and spreading both costs and benefits across a broader community. In this presentation, we will explore the differences between neighbourhood and individual property scale coastal protection by focusing on a case study in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia (BC). At this location, Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (NHC) - on behalf of private property owner, Craig Hodge - developed a nature-based design for coastal protection spanning two adjacent properties owned by the same individual. The existing shoreline consisted of a concrete seawall and a rock revetment. The design aimed to re-naturalize the shoreline to reduce erosion and wave-induced flooding through construction of a gravel beach, rocky headlands, and a raised and vegetated backshore. After significant permitting and approval-related hurdles, the project was successfully constructed in Fall 2021. Expanding on this concept, NHC - on behalf of the Stewardship Centre for British Columbia (SCBC) - developed a neighbourhood-scale version of the same design. This presentation will provide background on the project goals, site constraints, project design, and construction outcomes. The individual property-scale design will be compared and contrasted to the neighbourhood-scale design. Challenges and opportunities posed by each project scale will be highlighted.