State Policy Forum - State Support for Local Adaptation
GCC hosts a bi-monthly phone call with select State representatives. This tab features resources on building local capacity for climate adaptation through state action, the topic for the December 2018 call.
109 results are shown below.
Resource
2019
Massachusetts’ Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program (MVP) provides support for cities and towns across the state to begin the process of planning and implementing climate change resiliency projects. The state awards communities with funding to complete vulnerability assessments and develop resiliency plans.
Related Organizations: Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
Resource Category: Funding
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Resource
July 15, 2020
Managed retreat, or the voluntary movement and transition of people and ecosystems away from vulnerable coastal areas, is increasingly becoming part of the conversation as coastal states and communities face difficult questions on how best to protect people, development, infrastructure, and coastal ecosystems from sea-level rise, flooding, and land loss. Georgetown Climate Center’s new Managed Retreat Toolkit combines legal and policy tools, best and emerging practices, and case studies to support peer learning and decisionmaking around managed retreat and climate adaptation.
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Authors or Affiliated Users: Georgetown Climate Center, Katie Spidalieri, Annie Bennett
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
July 15, 2020
This report, produced by the Georgetown Climate Center, features 17 case studies about how states, local governments, and communities across the country are approaching questions about managed retreat. Together, the case studies highlight how different types of legal and policy tools are being considered and implemented across a range of jurisdictions — from urban, suburban, and rural to riverine and coastal — to help support new and ongoing discussions on the subject. These case studies are intended to provide transferable lessons and potential management practices for coastal state and local policymakers evaluating managed retreat as one part of a strategy to adapt to climate change on the coast. The case studies in this report were informed by policymakers, practitioners, and community members leading, engaging in, or participating in the work presented in this report. This report was written to support Georgetown Climate Center’s Managed Retreat Toolkit, which also includes additional case study examples and a deeper exploration of specific legal and policy tools for use by state and local decisionmakers, climate adaptation practitioners, and planners.
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Authors or Affiliated Users: Katie Spidalieri, Isabelle Smith
Resource Category: Solutions
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August 15, 2018
In August 2018, Governor John Bel Edwards launched the Louisiana Watershed Initiative in response to historic flooding events in 2016 that revealed Louisiana's high susceptibility to flooding throughout the state. Louisiana has a devastating history of flooding, with the state experiencing 16 federally declared flood- and hurricane-related disasters in the past 20 years. The Watershed Initiative is a statewide effort to reduce flood risk and increase flood resilience in Louisiana through regional coordination of floodplain management.
Related Organizations: State of Louisiana
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
August 7, 2018
The Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission - a collaborative of leaders from Puerto Rico’s businesses, government, and NGOs - came together with local communities after Hurricane Maria to determine how to best rebuild Puerto Rico as a more physically, economically, and socially resilient island. The Commission released ReImagina Puerto Rico as a guide to resilient recovery and reconstruction. The report offers recommendations for how to maximize philanthropic, local government, and federal recovery funds.
Related Organizations: Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission, 100 Resilient Cities
Resource Category: Solutions
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The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Coastal Community Resilience Grants Program provides municipalities with financial and technical resources to advance innovative local efforts to plan for and adapt to coastal climate impacts, including sea level rise, storm surge and flooding. In 2018, more than $3. 2 million in funding was awarded to Braintree, Chatham, Chelsea and Everett, Dennis, Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc. , Gloucester, Hull, Ipswich, Kingston, Marion, Mattapoisett, Nantucket, Provincetown, Salem, Wareham and Winthrop.
Related Organizations: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, StormSmart Coasts
Resource Category: Funding
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Resource
July 15, 2020
The coastal town of Hampton, New Hampshire has identified the need for long-term climate adaptation planning to address the impacts of sea-level rise and improve community resilience to coastal flooding through a state-local, public-private partnership. This ongoing adaptation planning process that started in 2018 is being led by the Seabrook–Hamptons Estuary Alliance (SHEA) — a local conservation nonprofit — with support from others including the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Coastal Program (NH Coastal Program) and town officials and staff. The approach taken by SHEA and the NH Coastal Program offers a unique example of community-driven, multifaceted planning focused on informing and educating the community through a series of workshops and surveys to gauge awareness and opinions across a range of different adaptation strategies. The adaptation strategies presented to the community for consideration include: protection (“keep water out”), accommodation (“live with water”), and managed retreat or relocation (“get out of the water’s way”). The results of these efforts are being used to inform local actions going forward. Policymakers and planners in other municipalities may find Hampton’s work instructive for how to increase awareness of the benefits and tradeoffs of retreat across a spectrum of adaptation strategies at the outset of community-driven, public-private decisionmaking processes. This case study is one of 17 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas: Lessons and Tools from 17 Case Studies.
Resource Category: Solutions
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July 15, 2020
Following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Oakwood Beach on Staten Island in New York City became the first community to take advantage of New York State’s post-Sandy buyout program to plan for retreat in a model that could be replicated in other vulnerable coastal locations. The members of the small community formed the Oakwood Beach Buyout Committee, and petitioned the state government to buy out entire neighborhoods, which resulted in large-scale risk reduction and cost-saving benefits compared to individual buyouts. Less than three months after Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a state-funded buyout program, pledging upwards of $200 million in funding and financial incentives to relocate families in high flood risk areas in places like Oakwood Beach. One year later, 184 out of 185 homeowners applied to the program — and by 2015, 180 of those homeowners were accepted to participate in the state’s voluntary buyout program. This process can serve as an example of a successful, community-led voluntary buyout effort that can be supported by state and local government retreat programs or projects in other jurisdictions. This case study is one of 17 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas: Lessons and Tools from 17 Case Studies.
Resource Category: Solutions
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May 8, 2020
Passed on May 8, 2020, Maryland’s Senate Bill 457 authorizes local governments to establish and fund a Resilience Authority under local law, outlines the requirements to do so, and specifies the powers local governments may grant to an Authority. A Resilience Authority enables a local jurisdiction to flexibly organize funding structures for and manage large-scale infrastructure projects specifically aimed at addressing the effects of climate change, including sea-level rise, flooding, increased precipitation, erosion, and heatwaves.
Related Organizations: State of Maryland
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Resource
2019
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services created the Climate and Health Toolkits to offer guidance on health-related climate change preparedness and response to local governments, health departments, and the public. Nine toolkits focused on Extreme Heat, Flood, Winter Weather, Wildfire, Chemical Release, Harmful Algal Blooms, Drought, Thunderstorms and Tornadoes, and Vectorborne Disease are provided, each accompanied by a one-page fact sheet for general audiences. Each toolkit offers background information, climate trends, and health impacts associated with the topic, as well as preparedness strategies and guidance, best practice tips, communication tools for outreach, and additional resources.
Related Organizations: Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Resource Category: Solutions
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