Objectives

1. To support climate adaptation actions of Gulf of Mexico communities through the Climate & Resilience Community of Practice (CoP).
2. Build upon the understanding of current sea level and climate impacts on the built environment and green infrastructure on the Gulf coast, particularly where storm surge impacts associated with tropical storm events are expected.
3. Identify mechanisms to integrate climate information and products into comprehensive and hazard mitigation planning.
4. Develop case studies and collect best practices from local municipalities coping with climate stressors to assist in communicating lessons learned across the Gulf.

Methodology

A Request for Proposals (RFP) was created in 2016 and 2017 to solicit proposals from local municipalities, counties/parishes, tribes, and regional planning bodies. This model has been successful in identifying high priority projects that can be implemented at the local level. Following a successful 2018 annual meeting, members of the Climate & Resilience CoP decided to form a Selections Committee to modify the existing award criteria to allow for a broader range of priorities including resilience topics (hazard mitigation, flood insurance, stormwater management, saltwater intrusion, etc.) in addition to climate adaptation topics (sea level rise, precipitation changes, drought, etc.). In 2018, the plan is to accept proposals from communities who are interested in implementing projects that will serve as local examples across the Gulf. Local governments, county governments, tribes, and municipalities will be eligible and the successful community will complete the project within one year. Proposals will be developed by local communities and submitted to the CoP steering committee for review. Review comments will be provided to the community and, if necessary, a revised proposal submitted to MASGC. MASGC will issue a one-year contract to the community. A final report will be submitted and a presentation made by the community during the 2019 Climate CoP meeting. We plan to evaluate this process, make any necessary changes, and then repeat the competitive selection process in 2019 and 2020 with the selected communities giving their presentations at the 2020 and 2021 CoP annual meetings.

Rationale

"This project directly supports NOAA’s Climate Mission Goal to ‘understand climate variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond.’ In this case we are specifically focusing on climate change (sea level rise, precipitation changes, drought, increased coastal storms) and will work with local coastal communities. Further it supports the Climate Outcome to increase ‘use of NOAA climate products by climate-sensitive sectors and the climate literate public to support their plans and actions.’ An increasing number of communities in the Gulf of Mexico region are taking actions to mitigate the negative effects of a changing climate. Several federal, state and local programs created a Gulf of Mexico Climate & Resilience Community of Practice to serve as a resource to communities who need assistance and to provide in-reach to outreach personnel working with these communities. Each year, the Climate & Resilience CoP hosts a meeting which rotates between the five Gulf states. Through the CoP, members work together to solve problems associated with the negative impacts of climate change. The $30,000 in funding per year provided by NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management will be used to assist a community in taking action to mitigate for climate related stressors. The funding will be used to support further adaptive action by the community."