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  • What is Coastal Resilience? Why does it Matter?
  • The Built Environment
    • Policy Framework
      • Federal Legal Framework
        • Federal Land Use
          • The National Flood Insurance Program
          • The Stafford Act and the Disaster Mitigation Act
          • Coastal Barrier Resources Act
          • The Coastal Zone Management Act
          • Other Federal Authorities
        • Federal Building Codes
      • State and Local Legal Framework
        • State and Local Floodplain Management
        • State and Local Land Use
        • State and Local Building Codes
      • Shifting Burdens: the “Safe Government Paradox”
    • Building Resilience
      • Facilitating Resiliency
        • Disaster Response – Lessons Learned
        • Integrated Coastal Zone Management
        • State Directives, Local Plans
        • The Role of Universities
      • The Primacy of Planning
        • The Question of Urban Resiliency
        • What Makes a Good Plan?
        • Assessing Vulnerability
        • Examples of Local Coastal Resilience Planning Efforts
      • Climate Change Adaptation as Hazard Mitigation
        • Incorporating Freeboard
      • Compact Urbanism: A New Paradigm for Coastal Cities?
        • Greater Social Cohesion
        • Less Area to Protect
        • More Choices of Where to Locate
        • Proximity of Refuge
        • Sturdier Buildings
        • Transit and Evacuation
  • Coastal Wetlands
    • Value of Coastal Fisheries and Wetlands
    • Climate Change Impacts on Tidal Wetlands
    • Policy Framework
      • Federal Framework for Wetland Protection
        • The Clean Water Act
        • No Net Loss of Wetlands
        • Federal Agency Protection
        • The Magnuson Stevens Act and Essential Fish Habitat
        • Marine Protected Areas
        • The Coastal Zone Management Act
        • Special Area Management Plans
        • Miscellaneous Federal Laws
      • State Law for Wetland Protection
        • Florida State Law for Wetland Protection
      • Wetland Migration and Shoreline Armoring
        • Rolling Easements & the Texas Open Beaches Act
        • Common Law Framework For A Rolling Easement
    • Management Options for Wetlands and Sea Level Rise
      • Creation of New Wetlands through Elevation
      • Enabling Wetland Migration
        • Prevention of Development
        • A Bay-side Rolling Easement to Insure Wetland Migration
        • Easements obtained through Mitigation and Preservation Efforts
      • Deferred Action
      • Combination or Hybrid Approaches
      • What Policy Makers Need to Know
  • Recommendations
    • The Built Environment
    • Coastal Wetlands
  • Resources
    • Literature
    • Useful Tools
  • Site Map
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Resources

Climate Change Impacts on WetlandsClick here to find links and information on literature cited on this website

Click here to find useful tools and agency resources

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    • Local communities can obtain substantial reductions in flood insurance premiums by participating in the Community Rating System, which encourages communities to keep new development out of floodplains.  The best plans are produced by communities with a high degree of autonomy (“home rule”) and freedom to create good plans and where states have strong requirements to produce such plans.
    • Keeping people out of harm’s way through land use planning is far cheaper than building levees or other structures.
    • Federally-subsidized insurance for development in hazardous areas is a moral hazard known as the “safe government paradox”. This subsidy has increased rather than reduced property damage and  human suffering in coastal areas.
    • The greater density of compact growth may be much  safer than the lower density often recommended for hazardous areas (provided more natural open areas are preserved).  Mixed-use development could function as a kind of community “safe room” for vulnerable communities.  A compact coastal city has more options of where to locate and less area to protect.
    • Government policies have been largely responsible for much of the hazardous coastal growth of the last 4 decades.
    • The best plans are produced by communities with a high degree of autonomy (“home rule”) and freedom to create good plans and where states have strong requirements to produce such plans
    • Good siting, proper building codes, and a compact urban pattern form the core elements of resilient coastal communities.  Hard structures, like levees, more often than not give coastal residents a false sense of security.
    • New policy is needed to insure that new wetlands can form on inundatable lands as sea level rises.
    • There is a very wide divergence in planning powers and authority between Florida and the rest of the Gulf Coast states. Per capita insurance rates are much less in Florida.
    • A resilient coastal city can withstand a catastrophic storm without “breaking”. Some recovery will be involved, but it won’t take long to regain its pre-storm status.
    • Government policies have been largely responsible for much of the hazardous coastal growth of the last 4 decades.
    • Coastal populations simply need to add a little “freeboard” to practices they should already have in place to adapt for the increase in storm frequency and power that climate change may bring their way. That many of these practices are not in place in most coastal areas does not bode well for the future.
    • Vulnerability is simply about knowing where problems are going to occur, who or what is at risk in those areas, and how well they or it can cope with the problems.
    • The development of effective plans for responding to disasters requires a delicate balance between local autonomy and federal and state mandates, a balance that has not yet been achieved in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).
    • A "perfect storm" is brewing: coastal growth is occurring in increasingly hazardous areas, areas that may be made even more hazardous from the effects of global warming. Coastal managers and planners need to take action now to prevent disasters waiting to happen. Effective adaptation to climate change will require nothing that is not already recommended for safe development in the coastal zone. Reforming the National Flood Insurance Program would do more than any other action to reduce future damages.
    • Even the smallest amounts of sea level rise will drown thousands of acres of coastal salt marshes.  Policy makers need to fully understand the nature of potential wetland loss across the Gulf so that they can design policy frameworks which adequately address wetland loss due to SLR, and insure the maintenance of wetland functions in critical areas.
    • Local communities can obtain substantial reductions in flood insurance premiums by participating in the Community Rating System, which encourages communities to keep new development out of floodplains
    • A Hazard Mitigation Corps, run through university extension programs like Sea Grant, would get hazard information and mitigation assistance on the ground quickly and effectively.
    • A good hazard plan ties land suitability to development constraints.
  • The weTable
    A tool for participatory GIS using Wii technology...MORE

    Community Health And Resource Management (CHARM)
    GIS-based software model to enable coastal residents and local officials to readily see the impacts of different development scenarios on community resilience and natural resources under varying climate change scenarios...MORE

    Community Resilience Index
    A self-assessment tool that helps coastal communities identify how they can increase resiliency to natural disasters...MORE

    CERC: Community Engagement and Risk Communication
    Building risk awareness and disaster resiliency at the local level, and helping local officials and citizens make sense of the many challenges and opportunities involved in growth planning...MORE

  • Resource Links

    • The Resilient Coast: The Built Environment
    • The Resilient Coast: Wetlands
  • Adaptation & Mitigation Links

    • Federal and EPA Adaptation Programs on EPA.gov
    • FEMA – Coastal Resources for Community Officials
    • NOAA Climate.gov Decision Support Tools
  • Legal Framework Links

    • FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program
    • International Code Council
    • The National Sea Grant Law Center – Resilient Communities and Economies
  • Programs

    • Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
    • Texas Coastal Watershed Program
    • Texas Sea Grant
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