A recent collaboration between UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience and East Carolina University found that mangrove forests significantly mitigate storm surge damage to inland properties. Using industry-grade catastrophe risk models, the team estimated mangrove-related benefits of $725 million during Hurricane Irma and $4.1 billion during Hurricane Ian. For properties in southwest Florida’s Collier County, the annual value of mangrove-mediated flood protection was estimated at around $67 million. The research is the first to incorporate catastrophe‑modeling tools to assign monetary value to natural coastal defenses. Funding support for this work included a grant from The Herbert W. Hoover Foundation. You can access the full article by visiting this link.