USC Sea Grant led a robust outreach, education, and stakeholder engagement process for the City of Imperial Beach, linking a science-based sea level rise vulnerability assessment study to the city’s climate adaptation planning process. The city of Imperial Beach is bound by three bodies of water—San Diego Bay, Tijuana River and Estuary, and the Pacific Ocean—and its low-lying areas are vulnerable to the impacts of extreme tides, storm events and sea level rise.

As part of the assessment, USC Sea Grant worked with a variety of stakeholders to identify coastal vulnerabilities from sea level rise and other coastal hazards, as well as a range of adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerabilities over time that are economically feasible. The City of Imperial Beach is now using the study results to inform development of a Local Coastal Program, and to inform the development of a more comprehensive adaptation strategy.

Research funded by USC Sea Grant brought new, self-cleaning aquaculture tank technology to the United States to improve larval production of white seabass and California yellowtail, and to increase public awareness of aquaculture through classroom and public education. In addition, Ocean Design has sold seven units of this self-cleaning tank, demonstrating a successful industry application of this research.

Planning for the impacts of sea level rise are a priority for the City of Santa Monica, but they struggle with how to engage residents on this issue. USC Sea Grant helped develop and deploy a virtual reality installation on the Santa Monica Pier showing future coastal flooding around the Pier due to the combination of sea level rise and storms. The installation was on the Santa Monica Pier from November 14, 2016 to January 14, 2017 and viewed by more than 10,000 people.

USC Sea Grant provided science support, outreach, communications, educational materials, and some funding to help Santa Monica engage local residents in the city’s planning efforts, in addition to engaging the public, teachers and students to increase literacy about sea level rise science and options for adaptation.