The changing shoreline on Martha's Vineyard variously fascinates, startles or horrifies people, depending on where they live or own property. The strongest supporting images of erosion are provided by destruction of buildings located at the water's edge, such as lighthouses and Worlds War II military bunkers. Among the latter, a concrete bunker (part of the Katama Naval Air Station target track) once 180 feet from the shore at South Beach in Edgartown was last seen far offshore, drowned in the surf. The associated rate of shoreline retreat comes to about 12 feet per year.
A startling new national report that uses computer imaging to flag the effects of global warming on the Massachusetts coast shows that the south shore of the Vineyard will be washed away and downtown Edgartown will be a swamp in 50 years — even if the most conservative projections about rising sea levels are correct.
The report was issued yesterday by the National Environmental Trust (NET), a nonprofit, nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C.
In a talk hosted by Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Climate Action Task Force, Dutch architect Matthijs Bouw said social infrastructure is essential for planning.
Preliminary work will get under way soon at the commercial fishing dock, after the Chilmark select board awarded a bid for a site assessment to Childs Engineering Tuesday afternoon.
If climate change put Martha’s Vineyard under a magnifying glass, tiny Chappaquiddick is under a microscope. Work has begun on an emergency response plan.
The $4 million reconstruction project at Memorial Wharf in Edgartown is nearly halfway finished and on track for completion by spring. The project will raise the wharf about a foot and a half.
