2019 Beaches Conference Concurrent 1 Long Descriptions – Community Resilience Assessment

Engaging Communities to Evaluate, Plan, and Improve Resilience to Storms and Flooding

This session will highlight how to bring community members together to think about resilience and share resources that support community conversations about what their community needs to be more resilient.  It will share examples of the ways these techniques and resources are supporting coastal communities in identifying and addressing vulnerability to flooding from storm surge and sea level rise.

Ruth Indrick


Community Resilience Assessment

Community Resilience Assessment will review community resilience to storm and flooding vulnerabilities and impacts, suggesting an approach to assess resilience. Using the question, ‘who makes up the community’ followed by 4R’s: risks, roles, resources, and responsibilities.  What are the risks or vulnerabilities articulated?  What roles do individuals, organizations, agencies, and institutions play in assessing and addressing those risks?  What resources are available?  What responsibilities do individuals, organizations, agencies, and institutions have to assess and address these issues?

John Duff
Emily Mitchell

Resilient Approaches for Resilient Outcomes

This presentation focuses on utilizing latest science, tools and networks to prepare coastal communities for climate change – what options and support exist. A ‘bottom up’ approach based on listening, using an organic process that evolves and is tailored to meet the needs of a community will be highlighted through a coordinated assistance effort between the City of Belfast, University of Maine, State of Maine agencies, and the Maine Climate Change Adaptation Providers Network.  Specific topics covered will be existing resources that can be drawn upon to assist in municipal decision-making.  These include results from a longitudinal study of municipal officials that inform assistance efforts; resources applied via the Maine Adaptation Toolkit; the CCAP network; Belfast’s Climate Committee, their 2018-2019 report and related work; and Maine Climate Future reports that identify a framework of change and effects across a wide range of sectors, ecosystem services, societal values, and functions as well as provide insight on the future for informed decision-making.

Nathan Robbins
Esperanza Stancioff
Samantha Paradis
Emma Swartz
Ivan Fernandez

Stonington Vulnerability Study Framework

Stonington Vulnerability Study reviews the coastal flood vulnerability study being conducted for the Town of Stonington. The purpose is to study municipal infrastructure: road networks and wastewater infrastructure, to determine critical infrastructure vulnerable to coastal flooding and provide adaptation solutions. The work is funded in part by a Maine Coastal Program Coastal Communities Grant and is expected to be completed December 2020. The study provides a framework for conducting vulnerability studies incorporating community, stakeholder, and asset manager engagement, and assessing adaptation options. This framework could be implemented in any community.  Audience members can know there is a path forward when dealing with coastal flooding due to storm surge and sea level rise.

Leila Pike