Project context and challenge
Monrovia’s coastline is retreating. Along the most densely populated stretches, waves and currents have taken away beaches, homes and land, and by 2018 more than 670 households had already been displaced. The worst affected areas, New Kru Town and West Point, are home to the Kru and Fanti fishing communities. Their small open boats need sheltered beaches to land, and their low carbon artisanal fishery supplies an important share of the city’s affordable protein.
Climate change will make matters worse. Rising sea levels, higher waves and more intense storms are expected to roughly double coastal retreat by 2100. Without action, the fishing communities would be forced off the shore and the fishery that feeds Monrovia would disappear.
With support from UNDP, the Government of Liberia set out to design a project to protect these vulnerable communities and the city’s coastal infrastructure. CDR was asked to carry out a vulnerability analysis, a feasibility study and an environmental and social assessment for climate resilient strategies along the coast.
CDR’s approach and contribution
CDR led the study together with IHE Delft and Liberian environmental consultancy Earthtime. After an inception workshop with the Government and UNDP, the team analysed both climate and non-climate drivers of change, from sea level rise and wave climate to sediment supply from the rivers and the Mesurado estuary.
New bathymetric and topographic surveys and sediment sampling provided the data for hydrodynamic and coastal process modelling. By combining past shoreline changes with projections under different climate scenarios, CDR mapped the expected coastal retreat and vulnerability for five coastal sections and identified the hotspots where action was most urgent. A socio-economic analysis showed how much the city depends on its fishery: fish provides around 15% of the animal protein in Liberia, and about 60% of the people working in the sector are women.
Protective options were developed as concept designs and assessed in a multi-criteria workshop with stakeholders. The team also prepared the environmental and social assessment, an environmental and social management plan and a stakeholder engagement process.
A key insight shaped the strategy: protecting the coast alone would not be enough. The study therefore combined engineering with measures to safeguard the fishing communities and the ecosystems they depend on.
Result
The study delivered a climate resilient strategy for Monrovia’s coast that links adaptive and protective measures. Protective measures include a revetment with a promenade and protected fish landing beaches at New Kru Town, a revetment or groyne with beach nourishment at West Point, and a groyne with beach widening along the Atlantic coast near Mamba Point.
Adaptive measures focus on coastal zone management, community awareness, sustainable fisheries, mangrove protection and ending sand mining on the beaches. Together they give the Government of Liberia and UNDP a well-founded basis for investment in a more resilient coast.
