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Spring

2025

Dunes, Development, and Delay: Climate Change Comes to Long Beach

Published
2026-03-05

Abstract

Long Beach is a development of privately owned cottages constructed on publicly owned land and a seawall in Rockport, Massachusetts. The town faces a difficult decision—of whether to retreat from the beach and rebuild its dune system to protect inland development against climate change, or to maintain the properties despite the risk of damage from sea-level rise and potential future major hurricanes.