Dissemination for Coastal Issues
Discussion leaders: Greg Knight and Claire Buchanan
Notes by Jason Allard
Issues that are important to the coastal region:
- The MARA team needs to be careful not to focus exclusively on Chesapeake Bay.
- Acknowledge distinction between ocean versus bay coasts.
- Development in high-risk areas is an important issue.
- Building in vulnerable areas conflicts with natural processes, but people like to live
in coastal areas.
- Sea level rise is an issue, but it is more important in conjunction with development
(issue of subsidies arose).
Information product issues:
- The research results need to be given in a "factual" manner, but present
uncertainties too.
- Need to correct, and prevent, misunderstandings.
- Information products must communicate a clear understanding of options.
- People need to know how to respond to the information that we have now (i.e., case
studies with policy options and information on legal dimensions).
- Address different time frames. E.g., regulations may change if one is looking at years,
decades, or centuries.
- Develop "no regret" coastal strategies. E.g., to reduce storm damage (e.g., a
marketing scheme could be developed to buy out particularly vulnerable areas, or
reconsider appropriations of existing subsidies, or could restrict development to areas
above the 100 year flood level).
- Need to know more about constituents and policy makers so information products can be
tailored for them.
- There is a basic problem of getting tools to local communities (e.g., hardware,
knowledge to access and use the information provided).
- Once communities have the basic infrastructure, agencies could provide information more
easily.
- Extension services that provide hardware, software, and training could facilitate the
dissemination of information.
- Money needs to be available for the future dissemination of information.
Issues for Inland Bays:
- Wetland migration.
- Dredging (e.g., sediment in water column, increasing sedimentation rates, turbidity).
- Sources of sediment can vary, and might not change much.
- It is important to have a coastal engineer involved.
- "No regret" strategies also could be developed for inland bays.
- Set priorities concerning what information, and to whom the information, will be sent.
- Providing hardware, software, and training to inland bay communities will facilitate
their communication about coping strategies.
The diverse audience for information about coastal issues:
- Local governments (a high priority)
- Coastal population
- Schools
- Land planners
- Audiences away from the coast that will experience coastal impacts
- Industry and insurance agencies that could have a lot of influence on coastal areas
Other pertinent issues:
- It is difficult to get climate change issues on local government agendas.
- It is important to at least get the language of climate change into current, and
ongoing, planning issues at some government level.
- Need better mechanisms for communicating about grants that governments can get (e.g.,
NOAA has grants available, sea grant outreach programs, etc.).
- Current knowledge and uncertainties must be factually presented.