Cape Ann is already experiencing climate change. These 27 vignettes show how Cape Ann’s critical infrastructure, beloved cultural landscapes and historic downtowns are changing before the storm arrives.
Good Harbor Beach
Gloucester, MA
ecosystem services, evacuation, fill, heritage, living shoreline
Good Harbor Beach is a beloved natural resource for Cape Ann residents, regional surfers and tourists alike, who flock to the beach during the summer months.1 The barrier beach is backed by a fragile system comprising dunes, marshland, and a tidal river.
Good Harbor beach is already changing.2 The irregularly flooded high marsh behind the beach is becoming a regularly flooded low marsh, and the steep increase in topography behind the existing marsh will not allow the dunes or marsh to migrate further inland.3 As the marsh recedes it will be replaced by tidal flats, destroying the complex food chain of marine life that begins in the marshes.4 The beach will narrow due to erosion from coastal storms that eat away at the sand and deposit it elsewhere along the coast, while businesses and residences along the marsh will also be affected by flooding and erosion.5 Thatcher Road, which cuts through the marsh, will flood repetitively and buckle, while the repetitive loss structures along the road will be damaged again in mild coastal storms.6
The footbridge that carries tourists over the dunes has already flooded during nor’easters.7
During the Great Storm, Good Harbor Beach will erode, and the storm surge will travel through the salt marsh behind the barrier road, threatening upland structures. The salt marshes behind Good Harbor beach will be inundated with tons of overwash (sand brought over the dune) into marshland areas, which will prevent the marsh grasses from growing back. This will decrease the area of the salt marsh for years to come.8 Stormwater issues already affecting the marshes will be exacerbated as the hurricane batters the Good Harbor Sewer pump station, releasing contaminants into the fragile coastal ecosystem.
Metropolitan Area Planning Council and City of Gloucester, Gloucester Community Resilience Workshop Summary of Findings (Gloucester: Municipal Area Planning Council and City of Gloucester, June 30, 2018), 6. ↩
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, City of Gloucester Hazard Mitigation Plan 2020 Update (Gloucester: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2020), 38. ↩
Kleinfelder, Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Gloucester: Kleinfelder, June 29, 2015), 16. ↩
Gloucester Open Space Committee, Open Space and Recreation Plan (Gloucester: Gloucester Open Space Committee, 2010), 44. ↩
Kleinfelder, Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Gloucester: Kleinfelder, June 29, 2015), 17. ↩
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, City of Gloucester Hazard Mitigation Plan 2020 Update (Gloucester: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2020), 34. ↩
Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, Resilience Guide to Gloucester, Massachusetts (Gloucester: Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, 2018), 1. ↩
Scott A. Mandia, “The Long Island Express: The Great Hurricane of 1938,” State University of New York Suffolk, February 9, 2018. ↩
Addison Gilbert Hospital and Seacoast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Blackburn Industrial Park (Wind Turbines)
Eastern Point (Dog Bar Breakwater)
Essex Causeway (Woodman's Landing)
Fernwood Lake Emergency Reservoir West Dam
Great Marsh (Cogswell’s Grant)
Old First Parish Burying Ground
Riverdale Electrical Substation
Rockport’s Inner Harbor (Motif No. 1)
Route 127 Causeway at Goose Cove
“The Cut” Bridge at Blynman Canal
West Gloucester Wastewater Treatment Plant