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Category: Climate

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(top left) A hand holding a pen traces a map for determining flood risk; (top right) an aerial view of waterfront property flooding; (bottom left) a walkway to docked fishing boats on the left and right; (bottom right) a person speaking and pointing to a flipchart while other participants listen.
Climate

NOAA Sea Grant Advances Resilient Coastal Communities with $4 Million in Support

Sea Grant programs across the U.S. are scaling up capacity to support additional hands-on, collaborative engagement to advance the sustainability of coastal and Great Lakes communities. Sea Grant awarded $4 million in fiscal year 2023 funds to its grant-based programs nationwide to continue or expand ongoing work or address new opportunities for coastal climate adaptation and resilience for the communities that Sea Grant serves.

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January 10, 2024
Climate

Community climate planning projects underway in 4 Connecticut cities

Four Connecticut cities have joined a pilot project to boost community participation in climate change planning. Community activities in Bridgeport, New Haven, New London and Norwich are being led by Connecticut Sea Grant with support from NOAA, and will focus on climate risk communication and planning for community resilience.

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October 18, 2022
Climate

Minnesota Sea Grant Study Shows Protecting Local Water has Global Benefits

New research, led by Minnesota Sea Grant Director John A. Downing, demonstrates why keeping local lakes and other waterbodies clean produces cost-effective benefits locally and globally. The authors found that adding up global financial benefits of clean water shows that keeping water clean can help slow climate change, saving trillions of dollars.

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May 12, 2021
Climate

Sea Grant Fellow Publishes Research on Impacts of Temperature Change on Global Fisheries

NMFS-Sea Grant Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellow Chris Free and colleagues published a study in the March 2019 edition of Science that “used historical ocean temperature and fisheries data to determine how ocean warming affects the amount of fish that can be harvested sustainably from wild-populations.” Free’s dissertation adviser, Olaf Jensen, says that the NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship was instrumental in allowing Free to pursue this groundbreaking work. “This fellowship gave him the freedom to really devote himself to this research rather than [teaching] or applying for small grants,” said Jensen.

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March 11, 2019
Climate

Sea Grant Helps Communities Navigate the Program for Public Information Process, Potential Discounts on Flood Insurance

Sea Grant programs in the Gulf of Mexico and Georgia help communities better understand how to create a Program for Public Information (PPI) and earn outreach points under the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS). Points earned through the CRS help improve a community’s rating and can lead to discounted flood insurance premiums.

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November 21, 2017
Aquaculture

Hanging by a Thread

Mussels dominate rocky coastlines and support aquaculture worldwide. Now Washington Sea Grant-supported researchers at the University of Washington are investigating climate-related threats to the amazingly tough mussel threads that anchor them to wave-pounded rocks and docks. 

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September 24, 2015
Climate

Water Cities: Can We Climate-Proof the Coast?

South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium is based in Charleston, S.C., one of the U.S. cities most threatened by a rising global sea level. More intense rainstorms combined with unusually high tides have communities rethinking traditional flood control structures. 

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September 11, 2015
Alabama

A Collaborative Effort Against Sea Level Rise

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of NOAA's Sentinal Site Program, Sea Grant provides coordinators to foster relationships among the various partners studying sea level rise and addressing community resilience. 

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August 25, 2015
Climate

Connecticut Shoreline Change Analysis – 100 Years of Erosion and Accretion

An important part of coastal resilience is understanding the dynamics of the shoreline, particularly, “How has the shoreline changed?” With funding from NOAA and National Sea Grant, a team from Connecticut Sea Grant, UConn CLEAR, UConn Extension and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection took on an ambitious project designed to understand and quantify shoreline change in Connecticut over the last 100 years.

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August 21, 2015
Climate

Needs Assessment of New Jersey Business Owners

As part of the National Sea Grant Coastal Communities Climate Adaptation Initiative (CCCAI), NJSGC is developing and implementing an education and outreach campaign designed to promote long term planning that will educate waterfront property owners and associated businesses about the need to gain an understanding of climate change and consider the potential impacts associated with it when planning for the future. 

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August 18, 2015
Climate

Maryland Climate Science Communication Forum

Scientists in Maryland have published numerous studies on the impacts of climate change on the Mid-Atlantic region, but communicating the results of that research has proved difficult. Many residents in the state’s coastal communities lack a good understanding of the risks that climate change and sea level rise in particular pose to their way of life. In 2012, Maryland Sea Grant held a statewide climate change forum to inform efforts to share and discuss the findings of climate science with these communities.

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August 18, 2015
Climate

Special Magazine Report Examines Sea Level Rise and Coastal Hazards

Along much of the Mid-Atlantic coast, sea levels are rising faster than the global average. This trend has already been linked to intensifying storm surges, shoreline erosion, and the loss of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay region. To educate residents of Maryland about the impacts of sea level rise and climate change in the Chesapeake region, Maryland Sea Grant formed a unique partnership with the regional news magazine, Bay Journal. This partnership resulted in a special issue of Maryland Sea Grant’s magazine, Chesapeake Quarterly, that was published in October 2014 and titled “Come High Water: Sea Level Rise and Chesapeake Bay.”

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August 18, 2015

Coastal Climate Adaptation Initiative

Woods Hole Sea Grant funded a climate adaptation project designed to provide regional and local predictions of future coastal storm activity and sea-level rise to user groups within the region and to promote wise utilization and conservation of resources. 

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August 17, 2015
Climate

Are We Ready for the Next Hurricane?

A symposium at Hofstra University was held to share a NOAA Coastal Storm Awareness Program-funded project that explored the cultural and language barriers that may have hindered evacuation efforts in Long Beach, NY. 

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July 10, 2015
Climate

Champions of Climate Adaptation

Leaders who are helping their coastal communities adapt to sea level rise, increases in heavy precipitation and flooding need additional technical, human and financial assistance to do so, according to a report by a 2014 New Hampshire Sea Grant Doyle Fellow.

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May 1, 2015
Climate

Climate and Salinity Intrusion Decision Support Tools Developed for the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin

Reduced river flows during drought threaten fresh water supplies in coastal areas because the lower flows allow the salt water wedge to penetrate further inland from estuaries than is normal.  During droughts over the past decade, some coastal drinking water systems and industries monitored threats to fresh drinking water and industrial water intakes due to this salinity intrusion; some have even had to periodically take intakes offline due to high salinities that can damage drinking water treatment systems and industrial equipment. To help decision-makers understand how the frequency of salt water intrusion events may change under future precipitation and sea level scenarios, the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments center at the University of South Carolina, and the USGS S.C. Water Science Center adapted an existing decision support system for salinity intrusion in the coastal Yadkin-Pee Dee river basin by adding climate model-based precipitation scenarios and increments of sea level rise to the Model 2 (PRISM2) decision support tool.  This modification is significant in that it allows water managers to explore how often salt-water intrusion events may occur in the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin under conditions influenced by ongoing and future climatic change.

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April 15, 2015
Climate

Southeast and Caribbean Climate Community of Practice

The Southeast and Caribbean Climate Community of Practice (CoP) brings together individuals from local, state, and federal governments, academia, non-profit organizations and the private sector in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the Caribbean to apply climate science and assess how coastal communities and ecosystems can adapt to the impacts of climate variability and change. The CoP provides a forum for sharing lessons learned and best practices related to climate communication and adaptation. The CoP also provides education and networking opportunities to its members and their stakeholders to increase knowledge and awareness of climate science and to coordinate and perform outreach, extension, and communication related to climate change and its impacts in the Southeast and Caribbean region.

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April 15, 2015
Climate

Assessing vulnerability to sea level rise in Beaufort County, S.C., using facilitated dialogue and visualization tools

The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, in partnership with the Beaufort County Planning Department, Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments program, Social and Environmental Research Institute, and North Carolina Sea Grant, provided a participatory opportunity for Beaufort County to begin preparing for flooding associated with sea level rise. The project team utilized several available tools to engage local stakeholders in the process. A focus group participated in the Vulnerability and Consequences Adaptation Planning Scenarios process to identify local consequences of sea level rise and explore potential adaptation strategies. Sea level rise visualizations developed with data from NOAA’s Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer tool helped stakeholders understand the risks of future coastal flooding due to rising seas. Public workshops were held to get broader input on adaptation strategies. A final report has been compiled for consideration by Beaufort County Council. This project has initiated a process of community learning that will increase the capacity of Beaufort County to adapt to sea level rise.

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April 14, 2015
NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured the center of a developing Nor'easter located off North Carolina's Outer Banks on Jan. 26
Climate

New York Sea Grant is Tracking ‘Great Lakes Nor’easters’

New York Sea Grant received funding from NOAA's Coastal Storms Program through a Sea Grant competition to study historic storm events along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. The project will create a climatological event database to better assist risk projection to help communities increase their storm event resiliency. 

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March 20, 2015
Announcements

Sea Grant Tools Help Communities Become More Resilient

This National Sea Grant Resilience Toolkit allows people to learn about tools from across the entire Sea Grant network giving users the opportunity to adapt tools for their own local needs. Each entry includes a description of the tools, a link for more information, and a point of contact.

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January 8, 2015
A Community Self-Assessment to Address Climate Change Readiness
Climate

A Community Self-Assessment to Address Climate Change Readiness

The purpose of this assessment tool is to provide community leaders, administrators, planners, engineers, public work directors, and natural resource managers with a simple method in the form of a checklist divided into nine different categories to review their community's particular vulnerabilities to climate trends and to identify priority areas to focus on through planning and projects. The goal of this tool is to help communities in the Great Lakes region identify and address vulnerabilities through education and planning to help reduce the impacts and costs of climate change-related damage through adaptation policies and procedures.

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January 8, 2015
High water
Climate

The land also rises (and falls)

Vertical land movement, caused by sediment settling, groundwater extraction, and tectonic forces, can boost or reduce the local effects of global sea level rise.  Conventional wisdom says that the offshore collision of two continental plates is pushing up Washington’s and Oregon’s coastlines. This assumption may make coastal communities complacent about climate change and sea level rise. Using tidal-gauge and GPS readings, Washington Sea Grant’s Ian Miller and colleagues have found that vertical land movement actually varies dramatically along Washington’s shores. While the Olympic Coast’s northwest corner is rising, the land is actually subsiding as little as 30 miles down the coast – and along densely populated Puget Sound. Communities need local data to prepare for rising seas.

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December 22, 2014
Community-based Sea Level-Rise Projections
Climate

Community-based Sea Level-Rise Projections

Washington Sea Grant partnered with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and Adaptation International to develop a set of local sea level rise projections, and sea level scenario maps for the Jamestown S'Klallam community. The assessments are being used to identify priority adaptation actions, tribal areas or resources that are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, and have also been integrated into community long-term planning. Additionally, Washington Sea Grant is partnering with North Olympic Peninsula Resource Conservation District and Adaptation International on a multi-sector climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan, including sea level rise and coastal flooding projections for coastal communities in Clallam and Jefferson Counties.

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December 9, 2014
Olympic National Marine Sanctuary Climate Change Assessment
Climate

Olympic National Marine Sanctuary Climate Change Assessment

Washington Sea Grant led the development of the Olympic National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) Climate Change Assessment, which examined the vulnerability of sanctuary resources to climate change. The report, intended for OCNMS staff, the OCNMS advisory committee, and the Intergovernmental Policy Council, is being used as a springboard for climate change adaptation activities in the sanctuary, and adjacent (mostly tribal) communities.

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December 9, 2014
Coastal Training Program
Climate

Sea Level Rise Adaptation Course

Washington Sea Grant, in collaboration with the Climate Impacts Group and the Department of Ecology offered a course through the Padilla Bay NERR’s Coastal Training Program on sea level rise adaptation. Building on the 2008 basic climate change course, this sea level rise course offered up to date scientific projections on sea level rise rates in the Padilla Bay NERR, in addition to methods to effectively communicate climate change, various planning opportunities in Washington, and examples of what others around the US have done. This course is the second in a series of climate adaptation courses.

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December 9, 2014
FutureCoast Sea Level Rise Web-Based Tool
Climate

FutureCoast Sea Level Rise Web-Based Tool

This was developed through a mid-Atlantic Sea Level Rise project we secured from Coastal Services Center (CSC). It was applied in Annapolis, and they explored its application in Hampton Roads, but it was too early in the evolution of the issues in Hampton Roads to use here. That is, this tool shows climate impacts at the individual lot level and the Hampton Roads citizenry and local elected officials were not ready to see, hear, realize that then (~2011). We are ready now and because we took an incremental approach with our community, we have been able to leap frog some of the challenges that other states faced and Fall 2014 we held a workshop with the real estate community.

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December 6, 2014
Maine Climate News Website
Climate

Maine Climate News Website

Recognizing the need for a centralized, neutral source of climate information specific to Maine, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant created Maine Climate News in partnership with George Jacobson, Maine State Climatologist, in 2009. The site is intended to be a portal to climate change science and research at the University of Maine and beyond, as well as a resource for news and climate-related activities throughout the state. The site is updated quarterly.

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December 6, 2014
Northeast Coastal Acidification Network
Climate

Northeast Coastal Acidification Network

Maine Sea Grant is a member of the steering committee for the Northeast Coastal Acidification Network planning a series of 10 Ocean Acidification Webinars, a synthesis of the State of the Science, culminating in a State of the Science workshop followed by Stakeholders workshops to develop an Ocean Acidification plan for the region (Long Island Sound to Nova Scotia).

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December 6, 2014
Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model Maps
Climate

Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model Maps

Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model maps (SLAMM), will be available on the web in October for all 21 coastal communities. This is being adopted for “planning purposes” by the State Coastal Resources Management Council.

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December 5, 2014
Climate

Cost-Efficient Climate Change Adaptation in the North Atlantic Report

This report from a year-long study from Sea Grant and the NOAA North Atlantic Regional Team (NART) identifies some best practices that communities can use locally for adapting to climate change. “Cost-Efficient Climate Change Adaptation in the North Atlantic” is a compilation of best practices shared by 34 towns and cities (ME to VA) willing to share the steps that they have taken towards successful adaptation. The report also contains an interactive map.

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December 5, 2014
Chester Climate Adaptation Team
Climate

Chester Climate Adaptation Team

The Chester Climate Adaptation Team, including Pennsylvania Sea Grant, has the capacity to assist with community engagement to assess climate vulnerabilities, consider solutions, and to plan steps for a more resilient community.

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December 5, 2014
Maine's Climate Future Report
Climate

Maine’s Climate Future Report

This report considers past change over geologic time, recent evidence of accelerated rates of change, and the implications of continued climate change in Maine during the 21st century as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and their associated pollutants. Maine Sea Grant’s Communication Coordinator, Catherine Schmitt worked with a multidisciplinary team to compile and edit the 2009 Report and several follow-up features on specific topics, and she is currently working on an update to the original report.

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December 5, 2014
Social science research
Climate

Social Science Research

Oregon Sea Grant has a number of social scientists among our faculty and staff skilled in conducting surveys, interviews, and other forms of social science research, including vulnerability analyses.

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December 5, 2014
Climate Fact Sheet Series
Climate

Climate Fact Sheet Series

Four fact sheets addressing distinction between weather and climate, preparing for extreme conditions, variable lake levels, and climate variability

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December 5, 2014
Climate Change Planning
Climate

Climate Change Planning

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has a climatologist on staff who conducts workshops and interacts with local resource managers along southern Lake Michigan to help the region become more resilient. We have produced or participated in the creation of number tools to help communities.

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December 5, 2014
Education Coordinator
Climate

Beware the Rising Tide

During extreme high tide events, known as king tides, Californians get an idea of what future sea level may look like in their coastal communities. USC Sea Grant has had the privilege to be part of several collaborative projects that are tracking, recording and analyzing these high tides events in order to predict future sea level rise.

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December 1, 2014
Climate

Climate Change and the Visitor Industry; People, Place, Culture, and the Hawai‘i Experience – Stakeholder Outreach Workshop Summaries and Risk Perception Analysis

Details stakeholder outreach activities for the Climate Change and the Visitor Industry project, summarizing the state of knowledge of current and potential impacts of climate change on Hawai‘i’s tourism industry and coastal communities; identifying opportunities for adaptation and sustainability of the tourism industry; informing Hawai‘i’s decision-makers in the public and private sector of the potential impacts of climate change, and; providing an opportunity for the visitor industry stakeholders to provide feedback on the findings and assist in the identification of priority sectors for adaptation.

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November 17, 2014
Climate

Kaua‘i Climate Change and Coastal Hazards Assessment (KC3HA)

As a technical report for the Kaua‘i County General Plan update, the KC3HA looks to improve the community’s resilience and preparedness to coastal hazards and changing climate through the better understanding and utilization of coastal hazard information and planning tools. The report compiles and summarizes available science-based coastal and climate hazard information to assist in information the General Plan update.

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November 17, 2014
Climate

Climate Change and Regulatory Takings in Coastal Hawai‘i

In light of projected sea level rise and adaptation responses (i.e., accommodate, protect, and retreat), this paper examines the interactions among climate change, the regulation of shoreline development in Hawai‘i, and Constitutional law regarding unpermitted takings of private property for public benefit.

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November 17, 2014
Gulf of Mexico Climate Community of Practice
Alabama

Gulf of Mexico Climate Community of Practice

The Climate Community of Practice brings together extension, outreach and education professionals and community officials in the Gulf to learn how coastal communities can adapt to sea-level rise, precipitation changes and other climate-related issues.

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November 14, 2014
Rhode Island Salt Marsh
Climate

Tracking Salt Marshes: Impacts of Sea Level Rise

Over the past 200 years, Rhode Island has lost over 50 percent of its salt marshes due to coastal development, resulting in a loss of approximately 4,000 acres statewide. Rhode Island Sea Grant and partners are working to develop the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM). The model will be used to help identify the most vulnerable areas to target for protection and restoration.

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November 10, 2014
Climate

Climate Change Symposium on Sustaining Coastal Cities

MIT Sea Grant (MITSG) recently hosted the Climate Change Symposium on Sustaining Coastal Cities, a three-day conference that brought together regional partners and stakeholders from academia, non-profit organizations, federal, state, and local governments, to discuss major issues and facilitate regional collaborations.

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October 27, 2014
Climate

Hawai‘i’s Changing Climate

How is global warming influencing the climate in Hawai‘i? The purpose of this briefing sheet is to describe what is known in answer to this question as published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and in government reports and websites.

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October 25, 2014
Climate

Climate Change Impacts in Hawai‘i

This report provides a basic summary of the observed and projected changes to Hawai‘i’s ecosystems and their resulting impacts for the state’s residents. The report focuses on five (5) systems: (1) marine ecosystems – (a) open ocean and (b) coral reefs and other nearshore habitats; (2) coasts and the built environment; (3) terrestrial ecosystems; (4) freshwater resources; and, (5) human health.

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October 25, 2014
The City of Chester Vision 2020 Climate Adaptation Planning Elements
Climate

The City of Chester Vision 2020 Climate Adaptation Planning Elements

With funding from the 2012 National Sea Grant Climate Adaptation Competition, Chester was selected as a model coastal community for integrating climate change adaptation planning into economic revitalization efforts. Here are recommendations from the Chester Climate Task Force adopted as an addendum to the Vision 2020 comprehensive plan for the City by Chester City Council on June 25, 2014. (PDF, 80 pages).

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October 25, 2014
Sentinel Monitoring for Climate Change in Long Island Sound
Climate

Sentinel Monitoring for Climate Change in Long Island Sound

The Sentinel Monitoring for Climate Change Program in Long Island Sound is a multi-disciplinary scientific approach to provide early warning of climate change impacts to Long Island Sound ecosystems and species to facilitate appropriate and timely management decisions and adaptation responses.

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October 23, 2014
Connecticut Climate Adaptation Academy
Climate

Connecticut Climate Adaptation Academy

Climate Adaptation Academy is a one-day session on topics relevant to municipal commission members (Planning and Zoning, Inland Wetlands, Conservation), municipal officials, coastal engineers and other interested professionals.

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October 23, 2014
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