Strengthening of Estuary Coastlines
Estuary manages its action plan taking into account the water resources of its watershed. The natural coastal infrastructure of the San Juan Bay Estuary is a critical part of the watershed, as it is the first line of defense against storms and hurricanes, storm surges, sea level rise, and coastal erosion.
What is coastal fortification?
Coastal strengthening refers to the capacity of coastal ecosystems to resist and recover after facing adversity, through conservation, restoration, and active management.
What is the importance of coastal fortification?
Abundant and flourishing coastal ecosystems help neighboring communities to be healthy and safe by providing natural barriers and ecological stability.
Assisted restoration project for coastal ecosystems
This initiative seeks to guarantee the long-term increase in the diversity of coastal ecosystems in the San Juan Bay Estuary system: mangroves, seagrass meadows, and corals.
The project consists of two components:
- environmental management (which includes the creation, restoration and improvement of coastal ecosystems) and
- the development of the skills of volunteers and residents
Activities include planting mangroves and coastal vegetation along the shoreline, and monitoring their growth, as well as the health of seagrass and corals.
Environmental management
Environmental management is the central focus of the project, as it addresses the urgent need to restore and conserve these valuable ecosystems.
Like all projects of EstuaryThis data-driven process allows for the identification of stress factors, prioritization of interventions, and the implementation of restoration.
The data is available to support the development of comprehensive proposals for investment in coastal infrastructure and the strengthening of our coasts.
Development of capabilities
Capacity building is the component that will guarantee the long-term sustainability of environmental management initiatives.
The project team trains citizens to support restoration and monitoring initiatives, and to increase the region's capacity to implement and maintain sound environmental management.
Program Overview
The coastline of the San Juan metropolitan region is better prepared to withstand and recover from severe and recurring atmospheric events, protecting ecosystems and communities and ensuring long-term socio-ecological resilience.
Puerto Rico has a concrete example of how sound environmental management, with the support of trained citizens, can have a tangible and transformative impact on the resilience of our coastal ecosystems and, therefore, of the surrounding communities.
Join the coastal resilience support:
The restoration work consists of reforesting vulnerable areas, transforming the trail into an ecosystem and ecological corridor in two phases:
- Reforestation of the coastline in the metropolitan region of San Juan.
- Monitoring, maintenance and attention to changes in the three coastal ecosystems, as needed.
For this we need to continue counting on volunteers interested in becoming certified as scientific citizens of the estuary.
We invite you to join these initiatives.
