A new tool has been developed, the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Coastal Habitats (CCVATCH), to help land managers, decision makers, and researchers develop conservation, management, and restoration plans for coastal habitats. This assessment tool identifies primary sources of vulnerability to assist with prioritizing coastal habitat management actions. As part of this project, four estuarine reserves in New England will conduct assessments of their areas, demonstrating the utility of the tool to support adaptive management in response to climate change. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

The research team developed a vegetation-resolving three-dimensional surge-wave model to simulate storm impacts on Piermont Marsh and the adjacent Village. The model incorporated locally collected data on plant distribution and structure, as well as observed and simulated wind and water level data from the Hudson River. By modeling the impacts of Superstorm Sandy, they found that marsh vegetation with predominantly invasive common reed, Phragmites australis, reduced 66% of the wave energy, but less than 1% of the flood, at the Village. The marsh vegetation also significantly prevented transport of debris from the southeastern corner of the marsh. If managers were to replace Phragmites with the shorter, native cattail, Typha angustifolia , simulations of Sandy, which occurred in October, suggest that Piermont Marsh’s wave and debris buffering capacity would be preserved. However, had Sandy occurred in May/June when Typha is much shorter and sparser, the marsh would have been unable to buffer the wave and debris as effectively. The Piermont Marsh Coastal GeoTool allows Village of officials and resource managers to explore how homes and buildings would be impacted under marsh management and sea-level rise scenarios.

Rising sea levels, severe storms, flooding, and erosion are reshaping the San Francisco Bay area’s coastline, threatening both natural areas and critical infrastructure. Preparing for these climate change impacts may be the greatest challenge facing local decision-makers, yet often they can’t access the information they need to plan effectively, and they are challenged by the uncertainty of how and when these impacts will occur.

Risk communication skills are essential for coastal community leaders in order to effectively engage, educate, and trigger behavioral changes that improve resilience to coastal hazards. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve and NOAA's Office for Coastal Management recognized this need and developed risk communication trainings and tools. This project extended that work by developing and hosting two-day risk communication workshops for coastal outreach professionals in four coastal communities. Each event included the Office for Coastal Management's general risk communication training and a technical assistance workshop specific to the needs of the local decision-making community. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

Southern California’s coastal environments are under intense development pressure. In the Tijuana River Valley, this pressure translates into the fragmentation and loss of coastal wetlands that provide invaluable services, such as water quality protection. Conserving and restoring these wetlands has become a priority for regional coastal managers, scientists, and environmental organizations. However, despite a wealth of knowledge about these coastal systems, decision-makers lack essential information to transform wetland recovery and management priorities into action.

In this project, the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve and Rutgers University, who have collaborated for more than a decade to develop coastal resilience tools, streamlined and enhanced existing mapping and decision-support tools for New Jersey coastal communities. The result was New Jersey Flood Mapper, an interactive, user-centered web tool that enables decision-makers to visualize exposure from coastal flooding hazards. The tool operationalizes a total water level concept developed by Rutgers climate resilience experts to allow planners to evaluate a range of flood conditions and time horizons. Enhanced map overlaps and data layers that show physical infrastructure, evacuation routes, and socio-demographic information are integrated into the tool to give a fuller picture of community vulnerability. New Jersey Flood Mapper offers coastal decision makers a go-to resource to assess and plan for potential risks to people and property from future storms and flooding. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

This project provided support for local governments to obtain necessary information to modernize and revise the Coos Bay estuary management plan. Through an integrative assessment, the project team leveraged knowledge from community members, synthesized and compiled existing information, and applied a triple bottom line lens (economic, social, and environmental) to portray current conditions and uses in the estuary, and generate options and recommendations for local governments to improve their estuarine and shoreland management. This integrated assessment project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to evaluate options for action. It did not produce any new data.

People receive numerous benefits from nature, such as water purification, coastal protection, and food production. These ecosystem services are an increasingly important consideration for coastal managers as they design management interventions to protect coastal habitat. This includes National Estuarine Research Reserve managers, who are working to better understand ecosystem services across the reserve system. However, without a standardized approach it has been difficult for coastal managers to consistently incorporate ecosystem services into programs or projects. In response to this need, researchers with Duke University’s National Ecosystem Services Partnership developed Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models (ESCMs) for estuarine habitats that diagram the way a management intervention cascades through an ecological system and provides benefits to people. The Duke team built on previous work that created an ecosystem services modeling approach for salt marsh. In partnership with the Rookery Bay and North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserves and their stakeholders, the team led a series of workshops to produce site-specific and generalized Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models for mangrove and oyster habitat restoration in the southeast United States. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

Through the current project, the Chesapeake Bay-Virginia Reserve is building on the strengths of the previous years of CECB to extend the reach into Middlesex County, while developing an alumni program to support the program in Gloucester and Mathews. All three counties lie within a region experiencing relative rates of sea level rise greater than the global average. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

This project will 1) quantify pathogens, nutrients, and sediment delivery to the Rachel Carson Reserve; 2) create predictive models for shellfish and recreational waters in the North Carolina Reserve by using this information, along with decades of historical data; 3) engage stakeholders and end users to prioritize management options; and 4) engage coastal decision makers, community members, K-12 students, and teachers in hands-on education on stormwater runoff and its impacts.