The Resilience Roundup highlights announcements and events along with links to the previous month's state, regional, and national resilience news.
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The Resilient Connecticut site has a new webpage that explains Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III of the project in more detail. In addition to learning more about each phase, you can find links to products including reports, map portfolios, ESRI Story Maps, engagement summaries, and fact sheets.
And since we are entering the last stretch of the project, check out the Phase III page to learn about seven specific projects chosen for detailed analysis and implementation in New Haven and Fairfield Counties, building off of the 63 Resilience Opportunity Areas identified in Phase II.
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Resilient Connecticut Phase III Webinar:
Designing Seven Projects for Municipal Resilience
June 22, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
The Resilient Connecticut project focuses on regional climate planning through research and engagement to inform municipal-to-regional scale pilot projects. Phase III of Resilient Connecticut will develop seven site specific projects that build on regional assessments of extreme heat and flood vulnerabilities from Phase II. These projects will include local engagement, detailed analysis, and the development of concept plans. Join this lunchtime "brown-bag" webinar to learn about and ask questions for the seven projects chosen in New Haven and Fairfield Counties. REGISTER TODAY!
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CIRCA Awards Two Research Seed Grants
CIRCA is pleased to announce two new climate research seed grants to UConn faculty studying wind & wave heights and the benefits of aquatic vegetation for climate mitigation and adaptation in Long Island Sound. Congratulations to Drs. Ravishanker and Manning! These seed grant projects will be complete in spring 2023 and are intended to support the development of future, competitive grant proposals while also advancing CIRCA’s mission.
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Sea Grant: Translating Coastal Research into Application
Letter of Intent Due: June 15, 2022
Full Project Proposal Due: August 30, 2022
Sea Grant and the U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP) announce a new funding opportunity for collaborative projects to integrate research, its application, and community engagement in thematic areas of long-term coastal evolution, extreme storms, and human and ecosystem health. Proposals should address the needs or gaps that have been identified by or are evident from USCRP-funded projects. It is anticipated that approximately $4,000,000 will be available to fund 10-20 projects at up to $150,000 over two years (Tier 1) or up to $500,000 over four years (Tier 2). Matching funds are not required.
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Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast
Community Climate Resilience Grant Competition
Letter of Intent Due: June 20, 2022
Full Project Proposal Due: August 1, 2022
The Community Climate Resilience Grant Competition will award four one-year grants of $25,000 each to non-profit [501(c)(3)] organizations working with socially vulnerable groups on projects that prepare communities in the urban Northeast for hazards related to weather and climate, such as flooding and heat waves. These grants are designed to support projects that may include activities such as planning, data collection, vulnerability mapping, grant proposal development, network-building, and advancing nature-based solutions. Proposed projects should reduce risks of climate variability and change in vulnerable communities, identify strategies that improve preparedness and resilience, and enhance equity.
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FEMA: Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
This program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), encourages a proactive approach to mitigate future damages from Natural Disasters. The implementation of Hazard Mitigation measures aid in response and strengthen a community's overall ability to withstand the effects of a natural disaster in the future. A CIRCA webinar held last summer highlights aspects of the FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program and application tips, including for this HMGP opportunity. This HMGP application period is open until August 5th 2022.
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Climate Adaptation Forum: Sweltering Heat Waves and Increasing Drought - Can The Northeast Handle The Heat?
June 3, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Join the Climate Adaptation Forum for this first in-person event since 2020! Attendees will have the option of being in-person, networking at the UMass Club in Boston, MA, or tuning in virtually from their locations around New England, the country, or even internationally. The Forum will bring in a diverse panel of speakers who will explore what we can learn from practitioners across the country who are already feeling the heat, as well as what our region is doing to mitigate these critical threats to our public and environmental health.
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NOAA Training: Seven Best Practices for Risk Communication
June 7, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
This training introduces participants to seven best practices and examples for communicating about coastal hazards. This interactive webinar introduces participants to seven best practices, numerous techniques, and examples for communicating about coastal hazards. Please note that this training focuses on improving risk communication skills for coastal hazards planning and preparedness, not crisis communication.
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Connecticut Environmental Forum (CEF) Meeting:
Climate Adaptation in the Age of Infrastructure Replacement
June 7, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
CEF invites members to a special in-person event at Elicit Brewing Company and Beer Garden in Manchester. The event will include a panel discussion focused on climate adaptation in the age of infrastructure replacement through a forward looking lens and feature leading industry professionals, CT regulators, and CIRCA's Executive Director Jim O'Donnell. The event will be moderated by CEF President, Todd Berman.
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Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) Meeting
June 8, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
The goal of this next GC3 meeting is to report on progress towards the 61 Near Term Actions of the January 2021 GC3 report and present the 2022 GC3 work plan. This meeting will be held in person and streamed live over Zoom. There will be an opportunity for public comment. More information related to this meeting is available in the agenda.
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Connecticut River Conservancy Webinar:
Climate Change Along the Connecticut River
June 15, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Explore the basics of climate change and climate impacts we’re experiencing in the Northeast and along the Connecticut River. You’ll hear about on-the-ground work to help our human and natural communities become more resilient in the face of the climate crisis.
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UConn CLEAR Webinar: Stormwater Utility Trends Across the Country
June 15, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Dr. Warren Campbell from Western Kentucky University will be presenting on this UConn CLEAR webinar. Dr. Campbell has been collecting and analyzing information on stormwater utilities for 15 years. He has been described as a human encyclopedia of stormwater utilities. In this webinar, he will dive into how widespread stormwater utilities are in the U.S., as well as various trends and patterns he’s seen throughout the years of his work.
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GCC Webinar: Greauxing Resilience at Home - A Regional Vision
June 16, 12:00 p.m.
Georgetown Climate Center (GCC) and the Capital Region Planning Commission are pleased to introduce Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision. The Vision was developed in collaboration with policymakers and community members in Region Seven of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative. It offers an innovative legal, planning, and policy resource to promote community resilience through housing and nature-based solutions in places where flooding, extreme weather events, and other factors are driving population changes and transitions.
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New York Sea Grant Webinar: Community Heat Mapping with Climate Engine
June 24, 1:00 p.m.
In this New York Sea Grant EJ Mapping Tools Project webinar, Dr. Andrew Reinmann will describe a method for mapping heat and other variables using the freely available Climate Engine app, which allows users to quickly access, visualize, and analyze remote sensing data and insights at the community level. We will hear background on how this methodology was developed as part of a Westchester County Forest Inventory and get to see a demonstration.
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Northeast Regional Ocean Council Releases New Living Shoreline Products
A new Story Map that gives an overview of regional partnerships and explores New England Living Shoreline Project case studies, including Connecticut's Stratford Point.
Report highlights key regulatory challenges and opportunities to better support the application of living shorelines in New England.
Metrics and data collection tools for different types of living shorelines are outlined to advance knowledge about the performance of these approaches in New England conditions.
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New Tool ASFPM Helps Property Owners Understand and Lower Flood Risk
To help property owners, particularly those in flood-prone areas, understand their flood risk and the most effective flood mitigation strategies for their particular property type, ASFPM has developed Reduce Flood Risk, an interactive flood mitigation resource library. At the heart of Reduce Flood Risk is a decision-making engine that guides property owners through a series of questions to help them understand their current flood risk and the specific steps they can take to better protect their home or business.
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Redfin: Climate Data Methodology
When buying a new place or selling your current home, it’s important to understand how climate change and environmental risks could impact your home or neighborhood. Redfin has partnered with two leading climate data organizations, First Street Foundation and ClimateCheck, to provide our users with comprehensive climate risk information for every zip code, neighborhood, city, and county in the contiguous U.S.
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Legislative Coastal Caucus Meeting Recording Available
Representative McCarthy Vahey and Senator Cohen led the CT Coastal Caucus on Thursday, May 12th, for a panel presentation and discussion on the role of municipalities in addressing coastal resiliency. The discussion featured Matt Fulda, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Council of Governments, Matt Hoey, Chair of South Central Regional Council of Governments and First Selectman of the Town of Guilford, Danielle Chesebrough, First Selectman of the Town of Stonington, Dr. Rebecca A. French, Director of the Office of Climate Planning at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and CIRCA's Executive Director, James O'Donnell and Director of Applied Research Joseph MacDougald.
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Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission:
Municipal Guidance for Coastal Resilience
Drawing on examples from other states, the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission has produced model ordinance language for Maine municipalities. "Municipal Guidance for Coastal Resilience" details specific provisions that can help communities increase their resilience to climate change. Resilience strategies include directing development away from hazard areas, extra flood-risk-reduction measures for development, and enhanced protection of natural resources and habitats.
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State and Regional News Clips |
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Lawmakers Approve 2040 Target for Zero-Carbon Emissions
CT Examiner - April 29, 2022
Connecticut lawmakers approved legislation codifying as law Gov. Ned Lamont’s goals for a zero-carbon emissions from Connecticut’s electric supply by 2040, in addition to expanding two programs aimed at incentivizing large solar projects.
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Federal Funding Boosts Maine’s Climate Resilience
Natural Resources Council of Maine - May 2, 2022
Maine has set clear goals for responding to climate change, but cities, towns, and Tribes rely on federal support to help make it happen. This article highlights recent examples of how federal investments have supported natural climate solutions and community resilience.
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UConn Team Impresses in EPA RainWorks Challenge with Eco-Conscious Redesign of Avery Point Campus
UCONN Today - May 6, 2022
A team of UConn students, faculty, and staff advisors won second place in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2021 Campus RainWorks Challenge. In a redesign plan of the Avery Point campus, native plants and green infrastructure mitigate the effects of stormwater pollution and “living shorelines” use oyster reefs to reduce wave energy to protect salt marshes and the sea wall while filtering out pollutants.
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Billions Proposed for Massachusetts Cities, Climate Resilience
Governing - May 10, 2022
Gov. Charlie Baker emphasized the urgency undergirding his recently filed $3.5 billion economic recovery and climate resiliency bill. The bill includes $1.2 billion for climate resiliency, including $300 million for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
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In Chelsea, Cooling and Urban Heat Island One Block at a Time
Wbur - May 12, 2022
A city block just behind the industrial waterfront in Chelsea is typical for urban heat islands across the U.S. Nearly every foot is covered by a roof or pavement. This nondescript slice of the state’s smallest city is worth watching. It may become a template as municipalities struggle with longer, more intense warm seasons and heat waves.
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Citizen Science Shows That Climate Change
is Rapidly Reshaping Long Island Sound
The Conversation - May 15, 2022
UConn's Dr. Hannes Baumann published a study showing how rapidly temperatures in eastern Long Island Sound have increased over the past four decades. At 0.45 degrees Celsius per decade, the sound is warming four times faster than the global ocean.
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‘Reef Balls’ Gain Traction for Shoreline Protection
E&E News - May 17, 2022
Climate adaptation comes in myriad shapes and sizes. In Westchester County, N.Y., it could take the form of bored-out concrete domes that look more like D-Day bunkers than green infrastructure. By breaking waves before they reached the shore, the reef balls reduce wave heights by half and lessen wave energy by an even greater factor, according to CIRCA's Executive Director Jim O’Donnell.
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CT Schools Will Soon Be Required to Teach Climate Change
CT Mirror - May 19, 2022
Connecticut schools will soon be required to teach climate change as a part of the science curriculum, a move state legislators and advocates say will mean changes at a small percentage of schools that aren’t yet bringing the subject to the classroom.
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In Hartford, Climate Change Advocates Target Insurers, Demanding Halt to Underwriting Fossil Fuel Business
Hartford Courant - May 25, 2022
Climate change activists are stepping up pressure against insurance companies to stop underwriting fossil fuel business, claiming one victory with a shareholder resolution as others fell short in committing insurers to do more.
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Vacuuming Carbon from the Air Could Help Stop Climate Change.
Not Everyone Agrees
NPR - May 2, 2022
Some of the biggest companies in the world, including Facebook and Google, are planning to spend almost $1 billion on a new climate change strategy. It's not renewable energy or planting trees. It's pulling carbon dioxide emissions right out of the air.
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Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Award of Nearly $20 Million for 98 Projects Through the Resilient Florida Grant Program
Alachua Chronicle - May 3, 2022
Governor Ron DeSantis announced the award of grants totaling nearly $20 million in state funds (FY 2021-22) for the Resilient Florida Program Planning Grants. This funding will support 98 awards to develop or update comprehensive vulnerability assessments in inland and coastal communities.
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Flood Risk Reduction Confers Multiple Benefits
PHYS ORG - May 4, 2022
Ecological flood control, i.e., measures that restore floodplains, is effective, technically possible and economically efficient. Yet, this approach is not consistently implemented worldwide because of the high administrative and legal hurdles. A study analyzed four projects for the restoration of floodplains in Germany and the U.S. where great synergy effects between flood protection and the regeneration of ecosystems were achieved.
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Climate Change: 'Fifty-fifty chance' of Breaching 1.5C Warming Limit
BBC - May 10, 2022
UK Met Office researchers say that there's now around a fifty-fifty chance that the world will warm by more than 1.5C over the next five years. Such a rise would be temporary, but researchers are concerned about the overall direction of temperatures. It's almost certain that 2022-2026 will see a record warmest year, they say.
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Climate Change to Make Droughts Longer, More Common, Says UN
AP News - May 11, 2022
The frequency and duration of droughts will continue to increase due to human-caused climate change, with water scarcity already affecting billions of people across the world, the United Nations warned in a report. Although no region is spared from drought, the report noted that Africa, the Americas, India and Australia as areas of particular concern.
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Revealed: The ‘Carbon Bombs’ Set to Trigger Catastrophic Climate Breakdown
The Guardian - May 11, 2022
The world’s biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning scores of “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global impacts, a Guardian investigation shows.
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Glacial Knowledge Gaps Impede Resilience to Sea Level Rise
EOS - May 11, 2022
In the years and decades ahead, sea level rise, driven in part by melting ice, will affect millions of people in U.S. coastal communities and hundreds of millions more around the world. Our ability to accurately project ice loss and its contributions to sea level rise requires research as well as knowledge dissemination to decisionmakers, that are still unrealized.
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‘Cash, Coal, Cars and Trees’: What Progress Has Been Made Since Cop26?
The Guardian - May 14, 2022
Six months on, the war in Ukraine and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have derailed some changes agreed on in Glasgow. In the run-up to Cop26, the UK government used the mantra “Cash, coal, cars and trees to keep the world to 1.5C” to highlight four key areas on which the conference would focus.
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Four Key Measures of Climate Change Set Records in 2021
NBC - May 18, 2022
Four key measures of climate change hit record highs last year, the United Nations said. Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean temperatures and ocean acidification all hit their highest recorded levels in 2021, leading to “harmful and long-lasting ramifications” for humans and nature, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
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The Wetlands Are Drowning
Wired - May 23, 2022
A long-term study of a marsh was meant to ask whether rising levels of CO2 could help wetlands thrive despite rising seas. The plants aren’t keeping up. For a long while, wetland researchers have wondered whether that skill could help the plants build their way out of climate change. As sea levels rise, so does the risk that the plants will drown.
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U.S. Heat Sets Records, Spurring Cities to Take Action
NBC News - May 30, 2022
Cities across the United States are preparing for what could be a sweltering summer, enacting rules to protect people during heat waves and experimenting with new ways to communicate the risks of extreme temperatures.
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The Resilience Roundup highlights CIRCA's presence in the news, provides links to recent local/state/national news articles related to resilience and adaptation, and announces upcoming events and seminars.
The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation's (CIRCA) mission is to increase the resilience and sustainability of vulnerable communities along Connecticut's coast and inland waterways to the growing impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the natural, built, and human environment. The institute is located at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus and includes faculty from across the university. CIRCA is a partnership between UConn and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP).
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State and Regional News Clips |
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