HUDSON RIVER SUSTAINABLE SHORELINES PROJECT
OUTREACH SUBTASK -- May 18, 2009
Goals of Subtask:
Primary Goal: Build consensus among and effect behavior change in key stakeholders in
order to protect the ecology and maintain resilience over the long term of the Hudson
River Estuary’s sheltered coastlines in the face of rising sea levels, changes in
precipitation and flooding patterns, and human responses to these changes.
Secondary Goal: Transfer technical findings, collaborative process, and products beyond
the Hudson to other regions around the country.
Priority Stakeholders: Our highest priority shoreline protection decision-makers include
property owners, experts and consultants, government regulators, and policy- and lawmakers.
Key Outreach Elements:
 Develop a logic model to link desired long-term outcomes to short- and mediumterm actions
 Define and Identify stakeholders
 Characterize stakeholder knowledge (climate change, shoreline management),
attitudes (receptive, skeptical), barriers and bridges, information and training
needs, and training or outreach preferences (duration, timing, location)
 Focus messages
 Develop a communications strategy, begin implementation, and adapt as needed.
Outreach Process:
An outreach sub-group of the project team will oversee outreach planning and
implementation, drawing on resource people inside and outside the project, as needed.
Emilie Hauser, the Estuary Training Specialist, will facilitate and coordinate the team and
the process.
Need to populate this team: Nordica Holochuck, Pace University, Barney Molloy,
Ellen Weiss…
Stakeholders will be brought into the process early in order to build relationships and
encourage two-way communication to generate stakeholder feedback buy-in and
assistance in achieving results. Need to identify members and plan Fall meeting.
Key Questions:
Who should be on the outreach team?
How can we utilize Pace University expertise?
What additional specific social science work is needed? Are there other kinds of services
needed? Who can do this work?
How can we use our advisory team to advance our outreach goals?
What other local, regional or state efforts can support attainment of our outreach goals,
and how can we be mutually supportive? (Examples: Rising Waters, Sea level rise task
force, Climate Change Office, NY Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation
Council, FEMA and SEMO hazard mitigation plans, NOAA and EPA, other NYS,
regional efforts)
Stakeholder Needs and Products (from the proposal addendum)
Stakeholder group Typical information needs
Experts,
consultants,
regulators
Property owners
and managers,
experts and
consultants
Knowledge of erosion
physics, shoreline
geomorphology, nearshore
and upland ecology;
knowledge of protection
options.
Feasibility of options from
a technical and permitting
point of view
Planners
Land use planning
techniques to mitigate
erosion
Municipal
Officials
Land use planning
techniques to mitigate
erosion
General public
Accurate, understandable,
pertinent, timely info
facilitate involvement
Appropriate information
products
Workshops, technical
standards, guidance
documents, reference
lists, case studies, best
practices and standards,
demonstration projects
Workshops, relevant
information on the
permitting process;
working demonstration
projects, handbooks for
erosion control
Workshops, case studies,
code reviews, model
ordinances, handbooks
for land management and
erosion control
Incorporation of findings
into a local government
toolkit for adaptation to
climate change
Public meetings
Displays
Media Campaigns
Comments
Longer-term
products could
include a general
permit or fast-track
permit process
Survey property owners (Task specified in original proposal and addendum)
Team members (Dalton and Davis) will characterize land ownership of different shoreline types
by linking details about land ownership (large and small parcels, public or private ownership,
and other available data) to current shoreline attributes by overlaying tax map data on the
shoreline GIS data layers. A mail back survey modeled after Dillman (1999) will be administered
to a random sample of shoreline owners to determine the values and behaviors of shoreline land
owners along the study reach of the estuary.
Criteria for Selecting Representative Subsets of Landowners
- Property vulnerability (location within the 100-year and 500-year floodplains);
- Property proximity to key resources (intertidal and sub-tidal vegetated communities, or
infrastructure for energy production, water and wastewater treatment, and transportation
corridors or nodes;
- Length of shoreline (owners of properties with both large and small river shoreline
frontages will be sought);
- Land owner characteristics (among the attributes we will seek are commercial, industrial,
institutional and public landowners); and
- Other criteria to be determined based on additional scoping and methods definition