Towns and Nations in Managed Retreat

Managed retreat historically has referred to coastal erosion, but increasingly is used in the context of relocation of communities from the hazard of sea level rise and climate change. On this site, we use it to cover community relocation from all manner of climate related hazards and we document other community relocations.

From Climate Change

• Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. Coastal Erosion and Sea Level Rise. In progress.
  • CityLab article on the move
  • NYT Article on the move
• La Push, Quileute Tribe Indian Nation, Washington. Earthquake/Tsunami, Sea Level Rise. In Progress.
  • Article
• Shishmaref Island, Alaska. Coastal Erosion and Sea Level Rise. In progress.
  • Agyeman et al, 2009
  • Article on Relocation Vote
  • Wikipedia Entry
• Taholah, Quinault Indian Nation, Washington. Sea Level Rise. Planned.
  • Article
  • Article on Planning
  • Planning information and exploration tool
     

Nations and Nation-level moves

• Kiribati. Sea Level Rise. Speculative.
  • Agyeman et al, 2009
  • Kiribati Government Page
• Maldives. Sea Level Rise. In Progress.
  • Article describing reclamation process for Maldivian Islands
     

From Other Hazards

• Centralia, PA, USA. Coal seam fire. Mostly abandoned - claimed under eminent domain, but no community-level relocation.
  • Wikipedia
• Kiruna, Sweden. Undermining. In progress.

Hino, Field, & Mach, 2017 lists more relocations from climate change in their supplementary tables. We'll incorporate what we can here soon.

Made by Nick Santos, based on the work of Dr. Nicholas Pinter, current and former members of the Natural Hazards Research Group, including Huck Rees, Sasha Leidman, and Megan Nguyen, and the authors cited in relation to specific towns

Know of a relocation not listed here? Tell us about it!