Preparing for Climate Changes with Living Shorelines (Webinar)

Georgetown Climate Center staff and state experts from Maryland and Alabama recently discussed important opportunities states can pursue to expedite the adoption of living shorelines and better prepare their communities for climate changes. 

Living shorelines are defined as shoreline stabilization techniques that use natural habitat elements like tall grasses to enable communities to become more resilient to coastal flooding and erosion.  They provide an alternative to "hard armoring", the common use of concrete and other man-made barricades, which is intended to protect property but can often divert flooding to another coastal area and increase erosion.

During the March 21 webinar, Jessica Grannis, staff attorney for the Georgetown Climate Center, and Bari Greenfeld, Georgetown Law student, highlighted analysis from a forthcoming Georgetown Climate Center report that examines regulatory challenges to implementing living shorelines and presents different methods states could use to encourage these types of projects.  State experts from Maryland and Alabama discussed how they are streamlining living shoreline permitting processes and their experiences with implementing living shorelines.

This is the second webinar in a series that features planning and policy experts, who seek to help coastal communities make the tough decisions necessary to adapt to climate change.  The first webinar addressed floodplain regulations.
 

Webinar Video:

Webinar Presenters:

• Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center
• Jessica Grannis, staff attorney for the Georgetown Climate Center and author of "Adaptation Tool Kit: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use”
• Bari Greenfeld, Georgetown Law student
• Jennifer Ottenberg, Maryland Department of the Environment
• Bhaskar Subramanian, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
• Chris Boyd, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium
• Tom Herder, Mobile Bay Estuary Program

Resources Related to Webinar:

Alabama

• Living Shorelines General Permit (ALG10-2011) | US Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/SourceBook/AlabamaGeneralPermits.aspx
• Living Shorelines: State Regulations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida | Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant http://www.masgc.org/pdf/masgp/07-027.pdf

Maryland

• Living Shorelines Protection Act of 2008 (H.B. 973) | Maryland General Assembly http://berrywoodsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Living-Shoreline-Protection-Act-of-2008.pdf
• Tidal Wetland Regulations for Living Shorelines (26.24.01) | Maryland Department of the Environment http://www.mde.state.md.us/programs/Water/WetlandsandWaterways/Pages/TidalRegsLivingShoreline.aspx
• Maryland State Programmatic General Permit (MDSPGP-4) | US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District  http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Portals/63/docs/Regulatory/Permits/MDSPGP-4.pdf
• Evaluation of Living Shoreline Techniques | Dr. Bhaskar Subramanian et al.  http://www.vims.edu/cbnerr/_docs/ctp_docs/ls_docs/06_LS_Eval.pdf

Washington

• Green Shorelines Guidebook http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/static/Green_Shorelines_Final_LatestReleased_DPDS015777.pdf
• Green Shores website. http://www.stewardshipcentrebc.ca/greenshores/