Coastal Climate Adaptation Initiative

Woods Hole Sea Grant

Woods Hole Sea Grant funded a climate adaptation project designed to provide regional and local predictions of future coastal storm activity and sea-level rise to user groups within the region and to promote wise utilization and conservation of resources.  An outcome of this project was the development of reciprocal relationships between resource users/managers and producers of technical information to facilitate end-user engagement informed tools for resource management.  As part of this effort tropical cyclone downscaling modeling within projected future climate scenarios simulated by the suite of IPCC AR5 models were used to estimate the probability of future tropical cyclone impacts.  Hydrodynamic modeling of hurricane surges was used to assess past as well as future probabilities of tropical cyclone-induced inundation.  Data visualization products were developed to help facilitate dialog with end-users through workshops. The probabilistic results pertaining to tropical cyclone-induced inundation was integrated with estimates of future local changes in sea level and synthesized into tools tailored for planners and managers.  Products include: Exhibits at WHOI and Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Series of workshops engaging “end users”, development of decision maker short course, lesson plans, web-based tools to visualize surge from historic hurricanes and sea-level rise.  This project provided the extension component of a recently funded NOAA project “Advanced Regional and Decadal Predictions of Coastal Inundation for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts” and provided the information desired by our stakeholders for decision-making.  Coastal managers are now using the tools generated by this project to include future sea-level rise and storm activity into the utilization and preservation of resources.