Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina Sullivan’s Island Town Council and people are studying the final draft of the Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resilience Plan.
Since summer 2024, consultants from Weston and Sampson and Elko Coastal Consulting have helped construct the plan, which aims to safeguard the low-lying island from rising tides, storm surge, and major rain events. They performed over 30 interviews with companies and residents, hoping to engage the community.
“This resilience plan has been in development for over a year and was developed in partnership with the community,” Rebecca Fanning, director of resilience and natural resource management for Sullivan’s Island, stated. “From the very beginning, we had interviews with residents and regional leaders in resilience work in order to set this plan on a solid foundation to address the needs of the community.”
Ten alternatives were offered, with each incorporating some type of nature-based solution. They varied from large-scale projects for the community to things residents could do to help protect the island.
“Sullivan’s is quite unusual because it has a lot of open area, or green space. So, one strategy focuses on the maritime forest, another on the salt marsh and its management, and yet another on the dunes,” stated Kim Morganello, team leader of Weston and Sampson.
“The resilience plan also offers mechanisms with already flooded lawns to make a change including the formation of constructed wetlands, to reduce the impact of erosion from stormwater runoff using techniques like living shorelines and vegetated soils lifts and buffers,” according to Fanning. “There’s a whole slew of tools.”
In addition to this strategy, Sullivan’s Island is implementing a stormwater program. Some man-made alternatives include subterranean water retention systems and, in the future, upgrading the approaches to the Ben Sawyer Causeway, allowing access to the island even during high floods.
“One thing that we consider its the tenth of the adaptation strategies, which is really probably the last one you would get to closer to that 2050 is actually thinking about the [Ben Sawyer] causeway,” Morganello told me. “How people get to Sullivan’s Island and are there changes that need to happen there.”
Consultants stated that some modifications may be required before the final document is accepted.
