Wetlands Watch
Wetlands Watch, based in Norfolk, VA, focuses on protecting wetlands statewide in Virginia. Wetlands Watch approaches this through both top-down approaches and grassroots activism. Related to climate adaptation, Wetlands Watch is working to implement adaptation strategies that address the risk of sea level rise to Virginia's coastal wetlands.
To protect coastal wetlands, Wetlands Watch is using a multi-pronged approach which includes:
- Collaborating with local governments to develop innovative land-use models that can be used by Virginia tidewater communities to protect wetland resources threatened by sea level rise.
- Conducting education and advocacy programs to educate and motivate citizens to be involved in grassroots efforts to support wetland regulation and conservation.
- Working with the private sector to develop a Maryland-Virginia program to educate and certify private landscape professionals in nature-based approaches to stormwater runoff reduction.
- Using the leverage provided by reforms to the federal flood insurance program to incentivize nature-based flood control and resiliency strategies
- Employing the “Sea Level Rise” phone app to crowdsource information on sea level rise/flooding impacts
Through their website, users can learn more detailed information about the National Flood Insurance Program's and FEMA's Community Rating System, natural alternatives to hard shoreline erosion protections that are wetlands friendly, what homeowners can do to protect wetlands, and information on how to navigate the Virginia permitting process, among other topics.
Phone: 757.621.1185
Sectors:
Related Resources:
- Sea Level Rise Phone App
- Tidewater Rising Resiliency Design Challenge
- Homeowners' Insurance Changes in Coastal Virginia: Causes and consequences for shoreline communities
- Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional Certification Program
- The Challenge of Mitigating Virginia’s Flooding and Sea Level Rise Impacts
- Sea Level Rise Adaptation Guide - Virginia
- Flood Protection Pay-Offs: A Local Government Guide to the Community Rating System
- Adapt Virginia (AdaptVA)
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