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Abstract
After Hurricane Sandy breached the United States, decision-makers were concerned with which shoreline protections the populations of the Northeast Seaboard preferred for restoration. Weather and storm patterns are changing, creating an interest in efficient beach management and coastal defense systems for communities. We administer a survey with a discrete choice experiment to counties surrounding Jamaica Bay, New York involving two restoration alternatives, shoreline armoring and living shorelines, as well as a status quo option. The significant factors in the restoration alternative that were chosen for each household include outdoor recreation, the amount of tax increase, federal funding, and beliefs in future storm expectancy. Respondents were more likely to choose living shorelines and have a higher willingness-to-pay for a tax increase to fund living shorelines in comparison to shoreline armoring. The willingness-to-pay for living shorelines was 3.73 times higher than for shoreline armoring.