We worked as a sub-consultant to George Mason University for this project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Virginia Sea Grant to develop a toolkit to help increase accessibility of sea level rise and inundation projections and gauge community perspectives on potential adaptation strategies.
Our interdisciplinary, integrated
resilience team of coastal scientists and flood hazard mitigation specialists
led the development of a flexible methodology to assess potential damages due
to episodic flood losses coupled with sea level rise over time. Our team also
created an interactive internet-based geospatial viewer, which shares the
technical assessment results from the parcel to the county level. An online
community survey and detailed instructions on implementing deliberative polling
events rounded out the toolkit, which could be implemented across the mid-Atlantic
and U.S. as a component of a climate change adaptation decision-making
framework.
When piloted in Anne Arundel
County, Maryland, the toolkit products were used to facilitate public
deliberation sessions to increase awareness of sea level rise risks and explore
policy and design options. The final report presented areas of heightened
vulnerability along with potential climate adaptation strategies that had the
greatest stakeholder and community support.