One action recommended to improve Oregon's system of oceanfront development and shore protection decision-making is to address chronic hazards on an area wide basis, at the scale of littoral cells or subcells. Hazard alleviation is more effective and less expensive when it is addressed at the same scale for which factors affecting shoreline stability are operative. The potential for adverse impacts and cumulative effects are minimized because there is an increased likelihood that these considerations will enter into the decision-making process. Decision-making is more timely and predictable because interagency and intergovernmental coordination is enhanced. Littoral cell management planning has the potential to improve our ability to locate new development away from hazardous areas and to minimize threats to existing development, while at the same time improving both resource protection and economic opportunities.
Headlands divide the Oregon coast into compartments, or littoral cells.
Within each littoral cell, features such as inlets, jetties, and rocky outcrops define the boundaries of even smaller compartments, or subcells. As many as 21 littoral cells have been identified along the Oregon coast ranging from less than 10 km to over 100 km in length. The sandy dune backed shoreline within these cells comprise about 262 of Oregon's 362 mile coastline, the remainder being headlands, bluff-backed or inlets. Littoral cells, or subcells, act as closed compartments for sand supply as headlands restrict transfers of onshore sediment to offshore movements within individual cells. These internal exchanges are typically described in terms of contributions to or losses from the littoral cell sediment budget.