By Borja G. Reguero
Habitats, such as coral reefs, can mitigate increasing flood damages through coastal protection services. We provide a fine-scale, national valuation of the flood risk reduction benefits of coral habitats to people, property, economies and infrastructure. Across 3,100 km of US coastline, the top-most 1 m of coral reefs prevents the 100-yr flood from growing by 23% (113 km2), avoiding flooding to 53,800 (62%) people, US$2.7 billion (90%) damage to buildings and US$2.6 billion (49%) in indirect economic effects. We estimate the hazard risk reduction benefits of US coral reefs to exceed US$1.8 billion annually.