New tool can help planners prepare for climate change

Old Lyme - Coastal town planners, members of land use boards and other municipal officials have a new tool at their disposal to help with decisions about how to prepare their communities for climate change.

On Wednesday, the Nature Conservancy's Connecticut chapter will introduce the Coastal Resilience Tool it developed in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Columbia University's Earth Institute, NASA and the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

It is an online, web-based tool that can be used for free by communities in coastal areas of Connecticut, Long Island and Westchester County, N.Y., and along some major rivers, said Adam Whelchel, director of conservation programs for the conservancy. While it is intended mainly for government officials involved in planning, emergency management and infrastructure, it could also be useful for businesses such as real estate, insurance, transportation and construction, as well as individuals.

"Now we have to get people to actually use it," Whelchel said.

Wednesday's meeting will be from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Old Lyme Town Hall.
The tool enables planners to see how different sea level rise and storm scenarios would affect their town's critical infrastructure, such as police and fire stations, sewage treatment plants and hospitals, as well as its natural resources such as salt marshes and eel grass beds, Whelchel said.

It will help towns identify open space that should be preserved to serve as flood buffers and areas where salt marshes can move into as sea levels rise, he said. It includes population data and identifies whether particular neighborhoods comprise primarily owner-occupied or rental housing. Overall, its purpose is to project what the economic, social and ecological impacts would be from various climate change scenarios and to foster decisions that will minimize damage and help communities adapt.

Whelchel said the creation of the tool is an expansion of the conservancy's traditional mission of preserving important habitats and natural resources into also working to protect the human environment.

"We're in the business of preserving life, and one of the principal threats we see (to both wildlife and humans) is climate change," he said. "We can't just be talking about natural resources."

As part of developing the tool, conservancy staff interviewed dozens of municipal officials to ask them whether they had begun to consider climate change impacts on their towns. Few had, Whelchel said.

"We're trying to change the way they think about future development, emergency management, contingency plans," he said. "The real test will be to see whether people will have the fortitude" to use the tool in decision making.

www.coastalresilience.org

j.benson@theday.com