Goleta Slough Resilience Project Acceleration Initiative

Supporting advancement of coastal resilience in the Goleta Slough in Santa Barbara County

The Urgency

The coast along the South Central Coast is vital—it is an ecological hotspot, an economic engine, and the heart of the region's community. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which poses a threat through rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and intensified drought, and wildfires.

The pressures of the built environment on the ecological function of the area are reaching a nexus point. The moment calls for a shift toward resilience thinking for the coast and prioritizing strengthening the natural ecosystems, not only for the benefit of the natural environment, but also so that they can be better equipped to protect the built environment from the impacts of climate change.

The Goleta Slough is central to the natural ecosystem in the Santa Barbara region, supporting ecological diversity and important watershed and shoreline processes. The Slough is also a built environment, incrementally filled and hemmed in by more than a century of urban expansion and economic growth. The challenges of managing the Slough in relation to the built environment have been an on-going concern for the last half-century, and a specific focus of the Goleta Slough Management Committee since the early 1990s. This management complexity is further exacerbated due to the array of governing jurisdictions and land owners in the Slough area.
Beyond its inherent management challenges, Goleta Slough faces the mounting threat of climate change, which is expected to bring more severe storms, increased flooding, coastal erosion, and rising sea levels. These physical processes manifest as coastal hazards in the built environment, causing increasing damage to development, infrastructure, public safety, the local economy, community well-being, and natural ecosystems. These effects are also compounded by increased drought, wildfire, and extreme heat days projected for the larger region.
The complexity of the socio-ecological system in the Slough demands a resilience framework and governance approach that is just as interconnected.
This has led to a one-directional relationship, wherein the ecosystem is manipulated in service of built infrastructure. The paradigm of modern society generally, but particularly in this regional context, has been predisposed to development and expansion of the built environment, at times at the expense of the conservation and protection of the natural ecosystem and cultural resources of the Slough.
To meet the social and economic needs of the region, it might seem more intuitive to address the immediate protection of the built environment. However, the results of this report signal a need for imagining more transformative changes to ensure the vitality of the whole socio-ecological system many decades into the future. It has also become increasingly evident that strengthening natural systems will ultimately positively benefit the entire socio-ecological system, including built infrastructure.
With a deep understanding of the current risks and projected future climate impacts to the region, there is now a pivotal opportunity to re-evaluate past decisions. However, changing this paradigm will take time. The community’s reliance on infrastructure that is located in the Slough means that the socio-ecological system cannot radically transform overnight. The natural ecosystem will continue to support the resilience and functioning of built infrastructure and in the short term the imposition of the built environment may slow or limit the extent to which the Slough can be restored to a more functioning wetland ecosystem. In the coming decades, management entities and the community can push for a more bi-directional approach to address the projected impacts of climate change, with infrastructure investments equally prioritizing the health and restoration of the natural systems. In this future paradigm, the built infrastructure and the natural ecosystem are managed in support of each other and the wider community’s resilience.
Every investment made is a decision point that can reinforce the status quo or nudge the region towards a paradigm shift—particularly moments when infrastructure is reaching the end of its usable life or impacted in a shock event. If the restaurant at Goleta Beach is damaged by waves again, will it be reconstructed in place? And if so, for how long? When the airport floods repeatedly or local utilities have sewage spills, how will managers respond?
These moments, particularly when a disaster (or shock) strikes, are the time to ask the question, what is the best path forward to reduce the potential future impacts? They represent opportunities to reassess whether rebuilding in place continues to serve the community's long-term interests. At these junctures, there are important questions to be answered: Why are we making this investment? Do we want to keep investing in this built asset? Is this investment being made at the expense of the ecosystem? Does it inherently prioritize the built environment? Does this investment make sense in the long term? Are there nature-based solutions and options we can explore or implement?

The Place

The Goleta Slough is many things: in addition to being a coastal wetland system, estuarine marine protected area, endangered species habitat, and tribal cultural site, it is also the location of critical regional and inter-regional transportation and utility infrastructure, including a national airport, an important state and local road network, a public access point for recreation, and the backyard for many residents in the City of Goleta, the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and Santa Barbara County.

The Goleta Slough watershed encompasses approximately 48.2 square miles in Santa Barbara County and includes the drainage from creek that carry freshwater and sediment from the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, converging into the Slough before discharging into the Pacific Ocean. The Slough is a dynamic coastal wetland ecosystem, known as a bar built estuary, that receives fresh water and sediment from multiple creeks and intermittently connects to the ocean tides through natural fluctuation controlled by stream flow, waves, and sand transport. When closed off from the ocean, the lagoon fills like a bathtub from watershed flows, often causing ponded lagoon flooding in low-lying areas. When open, it allows tidal exchange, creating a salt marsh ecosystem with a mix of saltwater, brackish, and freshwater habitats, supporting a variety of species.

For more detailed on the Slough’s ecosystem and its protections, read the report or visit the CA Department of Fish & Wildlife website.

The History

The Goleta Slough area has been shaped by both natural processes and human use for centuries.

As the original stewards of the Goleta Valley, and the Goleta Slough, the Chumash maintained the natural ecosystem for thousands of years as an extensive, tidally influenced wetland used for fishing, hunting waterfowl, harvesting plants, and as part of a broader network of coastal and inland trade and travel routes. A large Chumash village known as Helo’ was one of many important cultural sites historically located on Mescaltitlan Island and in the Slough.

Following Spanish colonization in the late 1700s, land use around the slough began to shift as ranching and agriculture expanded under the mission and rancho systems. In the 1800s, during Mexican and later American periods, grazing, farming, and early infrastructure projects led to increased sedimentation and the first alterations to creek channels and wetlands. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drainage, diking, and filling accelerated to support agriculture, rail lines, roads, and eventually airport development, significantly reducing the size of the slough and disconnecting it from natural tidal processes. In the 1940s, the island was partially leveled during the construction of the Santa Barbara Airport, and was used to fill marsh and salt flat habitats, an act which significantly impacted the cultural resources there and permanently altered the estuarine landscape.

These changes set the stage for 20th-century recognition of the slough’s ecological value and subsequent efforts to protect and manage what remains as a critical coastal wetland.

For more detailed history on the Slough, read the report or visit the Goleta History website.

Goleta Slough Resilience Acceleration Initiative

The Goleta Slough Resilience Acceleration Initiative is an effort supported by State Coastal Conservancy and led by Resilient Cities Catalyst in partnership with Tidal Influence, Heal the Ocean, Integral Consulting Inc., and the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center.

Initiative Goal

Resilient Cities Catalyst and partners will work with community members and experts to build resilience for the community, infrastructure, and natural ecosystem in and around the Goleta Slough.

Initiative Outcomes

Identify local climate-driven challenges through analysis of previously established regional priorities, via existing plans and available documents
Engage diverse stakeholders and community members to define community values and needs for the future
Identify a pipeline of coastal resilience projects that align with local priorities and address climate challenges

Initiative Outputs

Develop a comprehensive web resource with plans, research, events, deliverables, and relevant information related to Goleta Slough, which will include:
- A digital repository containing a catalog of analyzed plans that inform the regions priorities, results from the plan analysis, and visuals and narrative illustrating the environmental and socio-economic dynamics of the Goleta Slough and surrounding coastal area
- Resources from community engagement activities and a community vision that catalogs and synthesizes the critical priorities of stakeholders and residents for a more resilient future
- A project database cataloging coastal resilience projects that align with local priorities and address climate challenges
Using priorities identified and key outcomes desired from the plan analysis and community engagement, select at least three projects to advance towards implementation

Initiative Timeline

Plan Analysis

Environmental changes, inherent management challenges, and mounting threats of climate change all reiterate the need for increasing coastal resilience to safeguard the well-being of the region and its residents through strategic adaptation actions that not only recognizes the critical importance of the natural and social dimensions of the Goleta Slough area, but also leverages the decades of shared community and governmental commitment to the proactive management of the Slough.

This report summarizes previous technical and scientific studies as well as governmental plans to aid in further phases of the Initiative. It includes descriptions of the dynamics of the ecosystem and natural landscape of the Goleta Slough and surrounding areas, highlights key social and environmental entities, and synthesizes climate impacts and stated priorities for the region, including:

Ecosystem Protection and Stewardship
Coastal Resilience and Adaptation
Collaborative and Forward-Looking Governance
Climate Mitigation and Resource Sustainability
Sustainable Growth and Mobility
Community Well-Being and Equity

These priorities were identified through an analysis of 95+ documents created/published over the last 30 years and provide the evidence base for advancing efforts that increase coastal resilience. Analysis of the documents also reveals that the top shocks and stresses to the Slough environs varied widely across different geographic scales, but that general environmental degradation, including the loss of biodiversity, was the most referenced concern. Other frequently referenced shocks and stressors included both coastal/tidal and rainfall flooding and coastal erosion.

Understanding how sudden-onset shocks and the long-term stresses impacting the Slough interrelate in its complex socio-ecological system will inform future steps for the Initiative, particularly in determining the selection criteria for prioritizing adaptation strategies and projects that will deliver the greatest resilience benefit to communities.

Importantly, this report details the historic trend of built assets in the Goleta Slough area being consistently prioritized over the natural ecosystem. In the face of increasing climate impacts, a significant decision point has been reached signaling the need for a transformative shift in the approach to the Goleta Slough area such that investments equally prioritize the health and restoration of natural systems to ensure long-term socio-ecological vitality and resilience.

This report serves as part of the evidence base to inform the Initiative’s ultimate goal to identify and support strategies that push for this new, more resilient paradigm – prioritizing approaches rooted that deliver multiple benefits to restore and conserve natural resources, reduce harms to valuable infrastructure, protect recreational activities and public spaces, and highlight the cultural heritage of the Goleta Slough and surrounding coastal area.