We were recently selected to take part in an important climate change demonstration project that will focus on Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The Community Adaptation to Sea Level Rise and Inundation (CASI) project will examine how public engagement in decision-making influences community preferences for and adoption of policies that promote long-term resilience. If the public, including individual property owners, better understands the potential impact of climate change, including changes in sea level rise and potential flooding scenarios within their own coastal communities, what impact might that have on effective decision-making for policies to manage risk?

This is an interesting project for many reasons. We will apply its expertise in risk assessment by creating a composite sea level rise projection and projecting geospatial coverages of inundation under several scenarios over three time periods. We will identify properties that will be affected by flooding and calculate the range of flooding for each scenario. Our team will then develop a web toolkit for the public, designed to optimize comprehension of this information. This includes an ability to locate and study a specific property address, with visualization aids to help understand data. We’ll also include a “deliberative polling” function that allows us to survey site visitors before and after they study the information in order to gauge its effectiveness.

There are many breakthrough aspects to this work, which we hope can be adopted and replicated on a widespread basis in order to help communities become more resilient. One of the most interesting aspects, however, involves the many agencies and organizations who are working together to make this project a success.

The CASI team, known as the CASI Research Partnership, consists of George Mason University, Dewberry, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Center for the Study of Local Issues at Anne Arundel Community College. The project is being funded by Mid-Atlantic Sea Grant.

Anne Arundel County was identified by the CASI Research Partnership as an ideal locality for this particular project due to its ongoing leadership in assessing climate change vulnerability along its coastal areas. This includes the availability of extensive data, including LiDAR elevation data, that we will be able to use in assessing risk. The county has already conducted a vulnerability assessment and an evaluation of policy responses through the Coastal Communities Initiative Program with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. The next stage in this initiative is public outreach and education, which is where the CASI project will be helpful.

The CASI initiative is one of many examples where public agencies, academic research institutions, and the private sector have joined forces to address the impact of climate change. Working together is vital to building long-term resilience for our communities.