Westfield State UniversityDepartment of Geography & Regional Planning

Ana Mesquita Emlinger, PhDDristi Neog, PhD

Do we Have a Climate for Change?Insights about adaptation planning actions in

Coastal New England

1. Relevance of the Study

2. Methodological Approach

3. Group work

4. Group presentation

5. Main findings

Outline

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Why this research is relevant?

Marshfield, MA, south of Boston, during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Courtesy: Paul Halkiotis

Cities throughout the world face the challenge of preparing for the impacts of a changing climate.

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Why this research is relevant?

Marshfield, MA, south of Boston, during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Courtesy: Paul Halkiotis

The nation as a whole - coastal communities in particular - need to start planning today to cope with sea level rise + unprecedented tidal flooding -

take swift and decisive action to limit longer-term damage to our coasts (Union of Concerned Scientists 2014).

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Change in population of 25 most populous

Atlantic and Gulf Coastline counties:

2000 to 2015

Growth in the Coast

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Qualitative - semi-structured interviews (Phase 1) 2011 & 2014

Quantitative –Phase 1 + scholarship

Web-survey

to quantify the factors that affect the most the response to climate adaptation planning at the

community level (Phase 2)

Methodological Approach

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Target: coastal cities and towns up to 150.000 inhabitants (226 contacts)

121 valid responses - 57% response rate (RR) overall MA: 77 – 76 – 63 (83%) RI: 20 – 20 – 16 (80%) CT: 36 – 36 – 17 (47%)

Use of basic statistics for data analysis

Web-survey in coastal New England

NH: 7 – 7 – 4 (57%)

STATE: Target Pop – Sample – Surveys Completed (RR)

ME: 108 – 87 – 40 (46%)

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Preferred/popular Actions

Less preferred/less popular Actions

Biggest Barriers

Move forward

Information/Guidance

Main Questions

Group Work!

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Findings

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Challenges

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Popular Actions

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Less Popular Actions

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What’s needed to move forward

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What’s needed to move forward & Challenges

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Information and Guidance

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Based on the findings from web-survey conducted in 2015 with planners and city officials in coastal NE, the answer is:

Yes, we do!

Do We Have a Climate for Change?

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Current scholarship

little emphasis on explaining the steps communities tend to follow

Moving forward, we found necessary to understand the actions taking place in

the region

In this study we explored the initiatives communities have chosen as part of their adaptation planning process.

We believe that this is not only a good contribution of this study to knowledge, but also a source of motivation to practice.

Contribution to Knowledge

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source of motivation to practice

Thank you!

DR. ANA MESQUITA EMLINGER&

DR. DRISTI NEOG

WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITYGEOGRAPHY & REGIONAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT