Today, NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management has released “Protecting the Public Interest through the National Coastal Zone Management Program: How Coastal States and Territories Use No-Build Areas along Ocean and Great Lake Shorefronts.” From NOAA: In the face of continued population growth and increasing economic activity along our nation’s coasts, more devastating […]
Tag Archives | publications
Best Practices for Coastal Louisiana Manual not just for Louisiana
Posted on February 4, 2012
The Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) recently released the Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana website. What’s novel about this site is that it provides strategies for creating sustainable and resilient coastal communities based on “geotypes” (pick from chenier plain, alluvium, upper riverbanks, middle riverbanks, […]
NOAA Releases New Storm Surge Brochure
Posted on January 6, 2012
NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Unit has put together a new brochure explaining the what storm surge is and how to best measure it. There’s nothing here on how to prevent losses, but the before/after shots (on page 3) should motivate some people to think about how we need to plan for it. Added […]
Check out the New and Improved Coastal Community Resilience Index
Posted on September 12, 2011
We at StormSmart are big fans of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium’s Coastal Community Resilience Index. For those not familiar with it, the Coastal Community Resilience Index (CRI) is a simple tool that provides a snapshot of a community’s resilience, and can help identify opportunities to improve. Designed to take as little as two hours […]
New, Non-Technical Sea Level Rise Primer for Southeastern US
Posted on August 17, 2011
Finding information on sea level rise that isn’t so vague as to be useless or too technical to understand can be tricky. Gary Mitchum (University of South Florida) has taken a stab at doing so in Sea Level Changes in the Southeastern United States—Past, Present, and Future. You can download a PDF of the report […]
Rolling Easements: Finally, a Long-Term Approach for Rising Seas and Coastal Erosion?
Posted on June 21, 2011
It’s not hard to get overwhelmed when considering your community’s current flood and erosion problems. Add in projections for what future climates will bring and it’s enough to make you want to just stay at home (at least until the sea comes into your home). Unfortunately, nobody has found a silver bullet to save coastal […]
FEMA Releases New Community Rating System 2-Pager
Posted on May 10, 2011
They’re still working on an updated and expanded website, but the Community Rating System has a new 2-page summary of their program. You can download the PDF here.
Want to Protect Your Community from Sea Level Rise? Protect Your Wetlands
Posted on April 18, 2011
When we first assembled the conceptual framework for StormSmart Coasts back in 2006, we made a deliberate decision to not focus on ecological and habitat issues. This wasn’t because we didn’t think these topics were important—clearly they were and are—but because we wanted to really zero in on hazards without getting entangled on all the […]
Great New Publication on Elevating Existing Homes
Posted on April 14, 2011
We all know that the best way to keep buildings out of flood waters is to keep them out of areas that flood. The reality for most communities, though, is that homes and other structures are already in areas that flood. What to do then? There are many options, of course. You could somehow acquire […]
Four New Case Studies on Climate Change Adaptation for Water Utilities
Posted on March 29, 2011
Tying in with their Climate Ready Water Utilities program, the EPA has released four case studies looking at specific adaptation steps communities are taking. The communities are East Bay (CA), New York City, Seattle (WA), and Spartanburg (SC). You can download the case study from EPA’s website.