Using climate extension to assist coastal decision-makers with climate adaptation

Coastal managers need accessible, trusted, tailored resources to help them interpret climate information, identify vulnerabilities, and apply climate information to decisions about adaptation on regional and local levels. Fordecades, climate scientists have studied the impacts that short term natural climate variability and long term climatechange will have on coastal systems. For example, recent estimates based on Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) warming scenarios suggest that global sea levels may rise 0.5 to 1.4 meters above 1990 levels by2100 (Rahmstorf 2007; Grinsted, Moore, and Jevrejeva 2009). Many low-lying coastal ecosystems andcommunities will experience more frequent salt water intrusion events, more frequent coastal flooding, andaccelerated erosion rates before they experience significant inundation. These changes will affect the ways coastal managers make decisions, such as timing surface and groundwater withdrawals, replacing infrastructure, andplanning for changing land use on local and regional levels. Despite the advantages, managers’ use of scientificinformation about climate variability and change remains limited in environmental decision-making (Dow andCarbone 2007). Traditional methods scientists use to disseminate climate information, like peer-reviewed journalarticles and presentations at conferences, are inappropriate to fill decision-makers’ needs for applying accessible, relevant climate information to decision-making. General guides that help managers scope out vulnerabilities and risks are becoming more common; for example, Snover et al. (2007) outlines a basic process for local and state governments to assess climate change vulnerability and preparedness. However, there are few tools available to support more specific decision-making needs.A recent survey of coastal managers in California suggests that boundary institutions can help to fill the gapsbetween climate science and coastal decision-making community (Tribbia and Moser 2008). The National SeaGrant College Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) university-based programfor supporting research and outreach on coastal resource use and conservation, is one such institution working tobridge these gaps through outreach. Over 80% of Sea Grant’s 32 programs are addressing climate issues, and over60% of programs increased their climate outreach programming between 2006 and 2008 (National Sea Grant Office2008). One way that Sea Grant is working to assist coastal decision-makers with using climate information is bydeveloping effective methods for coastal climate extension. The purpose of this paper is to discuss climateextension methodologies on regional scales, using the Carolinas Coastal Climate Outreach Initiative (CCCOI) as anexample of Sea Grant’s growing capacities for climate outreach and extension. (PDF contains 3 pages)

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

U.S. EPA Coastal Management Branch

U.S. Geolgocial Survey

NOAA Sea Grant