Coastal Management Fellowship

2019-2021 Fellowship Project Summaries

Minnesota: Melanie Perello, from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and nominated by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, collaborated with Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Management Program to address coastal erosion issues exacerbated by near-record high water levels in Lake Superior. Her project aimed to map erosion hazards along Minnesota’s coast, establish the Coastal Hazards of Superior (CHAOS) community of practice, and provide outreach to property owners. Melanie’s work included developing erosion mapping methods, launching CHAOS to engage 200+ professionals, and creating standards and outreach materials to aid Minnesota’s coastal communities in mitigating erosion impacts. For more details, visit the Coastal Erosion Hazard Mapping website.

New Hampshire: Ben Sweeney, from the University of Rhode Island and nominated by Rhode Island Sea Grant, was matched with the New Hampshire Coastal Management Program to develop creative funding mechanisms and policies to support on-the-ground adaptation and resilience in coastal New Hampshire communities. Ben’s project had two main parts. First, he worked with the City of Dover to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to Study Stormwater and Flood Resilience Funding, assessing funding needs and strategies. Second, he facilitated a process to recommend state coastal resilience policy options. During a policy-option brainstorming workshop attended by over 40 local resilience professionals, Ben and his project team realized the importance of engaging historically underserved populations from the outset. Consequently, Ben transitioned to interviewing these populations to better understand their biggest needs and challenges. The findings will inform steps the coastal program and PREP can take to center equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice in their planning, policy development, and decision-making processes.

New Jersey: Sabrina Pereira, from the University of Rhode Island and nominated by Rhode Island Sea Grant, was matched with the New Jersey Coastal Management Program to identify measures or frameworks for evaluating community resilience, develop a method for equitable community resilience planning, and suggest integration of these findings with state initiatives in New Jersey. She created an Equitable Community Resilience Adaptation Toolkit for resilience planners, which guides the integration of social equity and justice into climate resilience planning processes and projects. The toolkit includes a step-by-step guide to resilience planning, introduces concepts central to equity and justice, defines vulnerable groups, explains why they experience disparate impacts, and provides planning actions to include vulnerable populations meaningfully. The toolkit helps ensure that planning processes and adaptation projects achieve equitable outcomes. Additionally, Sabrina integrated her research and lessons learned into the state’s first Climate Change Resilience Strategy and Coastal Resilience Plan, aiding New Jersey in achieving its equity goals.

New York: Leah Feldman, from the University of Rhode Island and nominated by Rhode Island Sea Grant, was matched with the New York State Coastal Management Program to develop a scenario planning tool (potentially utilizing virtual reality or augmented reality) to support community and regional resilience planning, local waterfront revitalization planning, and improved federal consistency review. Leah worked with the New York State Department of State in its Office of Planning, Development, and Community Infrastructure on the Coastal Lakeshore Economy and Resiliency Initiative (CLEAR). This project focused on Lake Ontario's coastal communities, which have been severely impacted by record flooding and coastal erosion over the last decade. The CLEAR project aimed to reinvigorate the area through community-based resilience and rehabilitation efforts using policy, planning, and resilience concepts. Leah’s focus was on scenario planning, working with Lake Ontario communities to help them visualize a better future using the values, priorities, and local knowledge of the community members.

Oregon: Adrian Laufer, from Oregon State University and nominated by Oregon Sea Grant, was matched with the Oregon Coastal Management Program to improve the availability of public access information for planning efforts and to encourage public enjoyment and appreciation of the Oregon coast. Adrian’s primary project was to update the program’s shoreline access inventory, a GIS dataset of all publicly owned sites offering access to an ocean, lake, river, or estuary shoreline. She also worked on the Oregon Shore Explorer, an online map tool for the public to explore accessible shorelines interactively. Additionally, Adrian led the Shoreline Access Work Group, an interagency group collaborating on access management, and created Shoreline Access Planning Guidance to help local jurisdictions assess and improve their shoreline access in terms of supply and demand, Americans with Disabilities Act access, environmental stewardship, and encroachment.

Wisconsin: Emma Cutler, from Dartmouth College and nominated by New Hampshire Sea Grant, was matched with the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program to apply geospatial technologies and resources to Great Lakes coastal hazard issues. Her primary focus was the Wisconsin Coastal-Management Data Infrastructure (WICDI) project, which aimed to establish a coastal hazards mapping community of practice and a cloud-based environment for data sharing and collaboration. Emma developed a methodology for mapping culverts using LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) and aerial imagery, a process critical for GIS-based flood modeling. This methodology is user-friendly for those with basic GIS proficiency and is intended for future flood mitigation efforts by the WICDI community of practice. Additionally, she collaborated with the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts to prepare a report on climate change and infrastructure in Wisconsin. For more information about WICDI, visit wicdi.org.