Tracking Progress - Better Safe than Sorry Workshop
Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
Mather Auditorium
June 22, 2015
9 am – 3:00 pm
Objectives for the Workshop:
1. Participants will share and learn about work currently underway to
safeguard people and community resources through planning and
preparing for coastal hazards and flooding, including climate changerelated measures.
2. Participants will identify the ways their communities track progress
toward community goals for preparation, mitigation, and response to
coastal hazards and flooding.
3. Participants will explore how their individual community goals related
to hazard mitigation and climate adaptation may align with shared
regional goals.
4. Participants will consider the advantages of developing a small number
of common indicators to use to track progress toward those shared
regional goals.
5. Participants will evaluate the advantage of continued collaboration to
build capacity and take advantage of synergies in our work to increase
the resilience of the region.
Planning Team: Annie Cox, Chris Feurt, Susi Moser, James Arnott
Facilitators: Annie Cox, Chris Feurt
Meeting Support: Emily Greene, Sydney Nick, Madhu Cornelius, Amelie Jensen
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Agenda: Monday June 22, 2015
Time
Topics and Objectives
Responsibility
7:30
Room Set Up
8:00
Meeting with MPB Reporter, Beyond 350 Confronting
Climate Change, Susan Sharon
8:45
Registration Coffee and Light Snacks
Objectives: Participant list is finalized, folders are distributed,
name tents and name tags in place, and brains are caffeinated
9:00
Welcome and Introductions
Chris provides overview of the workshop, objectives and
situates this workshop within the context of the Reserve’s ongoing efforts to build resilience and support adaptation in local
communities. Participants provide brief introduction and how
their work connects to climate adaptation in their
communities.
Introduce the idea of No-Regrets actions to set the tone.
Annie
Emily, Sydney,
Madhu and Amelie
Jon Carter,
Cameron Wake
Lee Jay Feldman
Annie
Emily and Sydney at
Registration Table
Amelie and Madhu
snacks and
resources
Chris facilitate
Sydney and Emily
note takers
Objectives: Participants understand objectives for the
workshop and review the agenda.
“My name is __________________________.
I am the _________________________(position) for
__________________(town/organization).
My work
safeguards___________________________(community
value) from flooding and coastal hazards
through
___________________________________________(action).”
9:30
Product: Enriched list of participant expertise and job
connection to climate adaptation
What can southern Maine coastal communities expect in
the next 50 years? – Cameron Wake, UNH (20 minute talk/10
minutes questions)
Cameron Wake
What is coming our way? What do we know about flooding,
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coastal storms, sea level rise and extreme weather events
trends and impacts on the Southern Maine Coast?
10:00
Objectives:
Participants can identify how patterns of past events,
especially flooding and erosion will differ in the future due to
climate change, and how this requires changes in business as
usual to protect valued community assets
Product: Scientific and Local perspective that brings climate
science home.
Successfully adapting to coastal change: Thinking about
"adaptation success" and how to measure progress
Susi Moser
James Arnott
Objectives:
Participants compare their ideas of local “adaptation success”
with examples from other coastal regions. Using lessons
learned from other regions, participants identify methods for
measuring progress toward climate adaptation goals that can
be adapted to develop local indicators of success.
Product: Visionary expertise brought into the local context
10:50
Break
11:05
Efforts of Southern Maine coastal communities to be
Better Safe than Sorry
Annie Cox
Introduction and overview of Draft Southern Maine
Coastal Community Adaptation Measures
Objectives:
Participants review draft measures providing corrections and
additions for their community listing on the worksheet
provided
Participants use the Adaptation Tool Kit and examples from
the Southern Maine Adaptation Measures to identify additional
measures that contribute to their community goals.
11:25
What are we aiming for? From individual community to
shared regional hazard preparedness goals
Objectives:
Based on local priorities and capacity, participants identify
adaptation measures that contribute to preparedness goals
Annie facilitate
discussion among all
participants
Chris capture ideas
on flip chart
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12:30
1:00
across the region
Participants identify measures not currently in place in their
communities that would support community goals if enacted
Product: Worksheets and discussion to ground truth southern
Maine “CAM” and begin to develop a shared sense of purpose
among the 10 communities. Individual towns identify next
steps feasible for their towns, measures we missed in the
matrix, and measures that in their opinion are “no way!”
measures for their towns at this time.
Lunch
Learning from participants about how success/progress
is measured
Feurt
Participants share how progress/success in their hazard
mitigation and climate adaptation goals is being measured at
present.
How do you know that a measure is a success?
Group Brainstorm to generate qualities of a successful
adaptation measure using examples from each of the
adaptation categories shared by the communities.
Product: Collaboratively developed qualities of successful
metrics of success linked to the purpose of that action.
Adaptation categories:
1. Planning Tools
2. Regulatory Tools
3. Spending Tools
4. Tax and Market Based Tools
5. Information/Studies
6. Other
Purpose of Current Actions
I.
Assess vulnerability of important resources
II.
Communicate the need for/value of adaptation and
mitigation actions
III.
Planning to reduce the impacts of coastal hazards and
flooding to community resources, human health and
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IV.
V.
VI.
VII.


2:00
private property
Preparing for coastal flooding emergencies
Response to hazard events with strategic action
Conservation or Restoration of Green Infrastructure
that reduces vulnerability and risk
Mitigate impacts through
Elevation of vulnerable infrastructure
Moving vulnerable people and structures out of harm’s
way
Do current ways of tracking progress and measuring
success need to be adjusted to account for climate change?
Feurt Facilitates
Group Discussion
Objectives:
Participants identify a set of indicators that will work for
southern Maine to track progress on actions that will
collectively make the region better prepared and more
resilient. Indicators are checked against the list of qualities of a
successful metric generated earlier.
Participants suggest ways that collaboration with each other,
additional partners and the Wells Reserve can facilitate
tracking of indicators and support communities in their
adaptation work.
Participants complete written evaluations and are eligible to
win valuable prizes.
Product: Measures of success that can be used during the next
year to track progress on shared measures.
Action items for Wells Reserve and partners to support
community work on adaptation measures
3:00
Adjourn
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