Coastal decision-makers consider sea-level rise in more comprehensive ways to enhance coastal community resilience
Relevance:
Sea-level rise is a ubiquitous stressor and negatively impacts nearly all aspects of coastal ecosystems and communities. To adequately adapt to these changes, it is vital that coastal stewards of the built and natural environments have the tools, products and services needed to understand and address changing conditions as accurately as possible. However, even with a multitude of resources available, coastal professionals often need additional support in answering questions and interpreting data.
Response:
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium-supported programs (Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative and Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level Rise) provided technical support and assistance to municipal and state coastal decision-makers and extension professionals. The programs provided one-on-one technical assistance (data interpretation, synthesis of current knowledge and best practices, data formatting and access) that was otherwise unattainable given stakeholders' expertise or skill. Additionally, the programs trained extension professionals to enhance their ability to provide similar support.
Results:
At least seven state and local officials improved the ways they addressed SLR in their work as a direct result of the programs' technical support. One example is that the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection newly required communities to consider changes in storm surge, high-tide flooding and stormwater drainage in vulnerability assessments. Another example is that the Jackson County Utility Authority (Mississippi) prioritized septic tanks for future infrastructure improvements based on the weighting scheme (which the programs helped design) to identify the most at-risk septic tanks due to SLR and flood issues. Additionally, at least 1 of extension trainees applied their knowledge in their work supporting coastal professionals.
Recap:
Technical support enabled more robust pursuit of resilience in the region through access and understanding of the most up-to-date sea-level rise science. (2021)
Magnolia Springs, Alabama, gains additional resilience from flood reduction and water quality improvements
Relevance:
The Magnolia River, a primarily agricultural sub-watershed in Baldwin County, Alabama, identified flood mitigation as a need for many years. Community members consider flooding a high concern - and an increasing one - as land cover changes, sea levels rise and heavy rain events occur more often. Further, the increasing risk of flooding is a double-edged sword as residents are also noting a growing concern with pollution in their river and streams.
Response:
Inspired by an idea co-developed with community members and local specialists, the Baldwin County Soil and Water Conservation District (BCSWCD) partnered with the Town of Magnolia Springs and Friends of Magnolia River Committee to obtain a $60,000 small grant and support from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-supported Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level Rise's (PLACE: SLR) Resilience to Future Flooding project. With the support and funding, they assessed multiple sites for constructed wetland design, flood detention capacities, feasibility, costs and benefits.
Results:
After BCSWCD identified the most feasible and beneficial site for a constructed wetland, it used that information to successfully obtain funding to begin moving forward with construction of a wetland. The Baldwin County engineer of record applied for $12,000,000 for acquisition, planning and design, and construction. They have currently been awarded the Phase One funding of $4,000,000 for acquisition and planning and design. This multi-phased project was possible as a direct result of PLACE: SLR's support.
Recap:
With assistance from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-supported Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects, the Baldwin County Soil and Water Conservation District and local partners have secured funding for a constructed wetland to transform a borrow pit into a regional detention site, thus mitigating flooding and improving water quality. (2021)
Coastal professionals successfully access tools for climate resilience and spread awareness to other stakeholders
Relevance:
The Gulf Tools for Resilience Exploration Engine (Gulf TREE), a filter-based search engine for climate resilience tools, is an asset for stakeholders across the Gulf of Mexico who are interested in incorporating resilience into their work. However, since its release in 2018, the Gulf region's Sea Grant programs, National Estuarine Research Reserves and other outreach and extension professionals have requested advanced trainings to increase their capacity to support and encourage application of Gulf TREE within their networks.
Response:
The Gulf TREE Train the Trainer series consisted of seven trainings with 88 participants and focused on different regions of the Gulf Coast. Trainings taught participants about climate resilience tools and how to find them quickly, easily and confidently, with 85% of participants feeling their access to climate resilience tools increased. Participants were tasked with multiple scenarios, all inspired by real situations, to explore independently in groups. The scenarios gradually increase in difficulty.
Results:
In a follow-up survey six months after the trainings, 43% of respondents (n=9) had used their training to train others on Gulf TREE, reaching an additional 84 stakeholders; 15% (n=3) had used Gulf TREE to support their own climate resilience work; and 10% (n=2) had supported others using Gulf TREE in their climate resilience work.
Recap:
Reaching sectors across the coastal climate resilience spectrum, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-supported Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level Rise (PLACE: SLR) ran a series of Gulf regional trainings that increased stakeholder access to climate resilience tools, which stakeholders incorporated into their work in various ways.
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-created Program for Public Information plan allows Biloxi to gain points in the Community Rating System
Relevance:
Biloxi experiences hurricanes and high annual rainfall, which can result in severe flash flooding - the impacts of which will intensify with sea level rise. In response to these flood risks, Biloxi enrolled in the Community Rating System (CRS) program. By engaging in CRS activities, such as developing a Program for Public Information (PPI), the city can improve its CRS score and lower flood insurance premiums. The PPI also provides city staff with a method to evaluate the effectiveness of local flood outreach.
Response:
In anticipation of the CRS cycle visit, Sea Grant staff modified the PPI document to incorporate new changes in city flood outreach. A 2021 annual report was also written. The report highlighted flood outreach in 2021, summarized projects that might impact future flood communication and indicated changes made to the PPI activities sheet. Sea Grant staff shared the annual report and revised PPI document during an online PPI committee meeting that they organized.
Results:
Biloxi received 288 points for CRS activity 330, which provides credit for information outreach and the PPI documentation process. In total, following the 2021 CRS Cycle review, Biloxi received 2,162 points, resulting in a Class 6 rating. This means activity 330 contributed to 13 percent of the total score. Communities with a PPI receive a 40 percent multiplier, so by multiplying activity 330 points by 40%, the total points attributable to the PPI is 115.
Recap:
Sea Grant worked with city staff in Biloxi, Mississippi, to update the city's Program for Public Information (PPI) plan, which led to the city securing 115 points during a Federal Emergency Management Agency Community Rating System cycle visit. (2021)
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant provides technical assistance, ensures beach access rights in Fairhope, Alabama
Relevance:
Part of Sea Grant's mission is to inform the public on natural coastal resources, and the information from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program explained the right of public access to beaches below the mean high tide line. In Alabama, common law requires allowing the public access is to areas below the mean high tide. However, some waterfront property owners and local municipalities are not aware of the laws that maintain this access.
Response:
A Fairhope, Alabama, code enforcement officer turned to the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) for help regarding public beach access after new homeowners next to a city marina posted private beach/no trespassing signs to prevent people from walking the beach. An MASGC attorney provided her article "Shifting Sands, Bedrock Law: Public Ownership of Tidelands," which explains how centuries of common law protect the right of the public to access beaches below the mean high tide line in Alabama. http://masglp.olemiss.edu/waterlog/pdf/sep20/wl40.3_article4.pdf
Results:
Because of Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program expertise, members of the public in a small town are able to enjoy access to a beach that homeowners posted as private.
Recap:
After landowners improperly posted their beach as private property/no trespass, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant explained to the City of Fairhope, Alabama, via an article in its legal publication, "Water Log," that the public has a constitutional right to access beaches in Alabama and ensured access for everyone. (2021)
Sea Grant-developed inventory results in multi-million-dollar investment in restoration projects and additional acres of restored coastal habitats
Relevance:
Hydrologic barriers to the natural flow of coastal waters has adversely impacted coastal fisheries and communities throughout the Gulf of Mexico. With advanced technology and new approaches the natural flow of coastal areas can be restored and enhance the ecosystem.
Response:
The four Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant college programs collaborated with the NOAA Restoration Center on a community-based restoration program, which concluded in 2014. Part of this project included Sea Grant extension professionals working with local communities and restoration experts to identify hydrological restoration sites throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant developed an inventory of the sites and shared it broadly. The results of the project, including the inventory, are located here: http://masgc.org/hydrorestoration.
Results:
Resource managers used the inventory to identify and fund restoration using RESTORE funding. Approximately $2.17M was initially allocated to NOAA to plan restoration of three inventory projects. Since then one project, Robinson Preserve, was funded and completed. This project ultimately restored 118 acres creating high quality estuarine subtidal habitats and linking coastal upland, wetland and estuarine areas. Without the inventory, these projects may not have been funded or identified as priorities.
Recap:
The network of Sea Grant extension professionals in the Gulf of Mexico was able to build an inventory of sites that required hydrologic restoration that was used by the Department of Commerce and Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to fund multiple large-scale restoration effort including a recent project that was completed that restored 118 acres. (2021)
