Description

1) A Community Flood Resilience Tool to Accelerate Equitable Adaptation Across the US
Frederique de Groen, Deltares, frederique.degroen@deltares.nl
Co-presenters: None

Abstract: Many tools enable visualization of climate risks, particularly related to coastal inundation, although there remains a large need for equity-driven, accessible tools to evaluate adaptation measures to mitigate these physical risks. A Community Flood Resilience Support System (CFRSS) has been developed to empower communities in testing adaptation measures based on risk-reduction benefits under changing conditions (sea level rise, population growth). The tool computes flood hazards, damages, and risks for combinations of events, adaptation strategies, and future conditions by coupling models for compound flooding (SFINCS) and damages (Delft-FIAT). A graphical user interface interacts with these back-end models and allows non-expert end-users to define events, future projections, and adaptation strategies. Automatically generated GIS output allows for visualization of flood exposure and to assess effectiveness of adaptation strategies. Over the past two years, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate and Deltares USA collaborated with Charleston, SC to implement CFRSS for an initial, flood-prone community. Ongoing R&D on CFRSS includes further integration of equity into decision-making, including factoring in indicators for the social cost of carbon, to expand the equity component of CFRSS for additional communities and community needs. These community planning needs – facilitated by direct engagement with stakeholders - are being prioritized to guide further tool enhancements that may possibly include integration of drainage network improvements, nature-based solutions, cascading impacts, refined benefit-cost analysis outputs, and/or tipping points, to define when new adaptation measures will become necessary to continue to meet community planning objectives. This presentation will show examples of how the tool can answer typical questions like “what if Hurricane Ian’s track had been further to the east?”, or “how high should new development be elevated above base flood elevation?” Demonstrations will highlight the open-source tool’s utility and how attendees can explore its applications for their community.

2) Policy Watch: Understanding Recent and Pending Federal Actions Impacting Floodplain Resilience
Jessie Ritter, National Wildlife Federation, ritterj@nwf.org
Co-presenters: None

Abstract: The United States is at a once-in-a-generation juncture for floodplain management. Within the last few years, there has been substantial legislative, regulatory, and policy movement to improve floodplain resilience and adaptation across numerous federal agencies, the White House, and Congress. Despite this progress, year and after year, flood losses stack up, floodplain development pressures continue, and community vulnerability only increases with a changing climate. Now, a historic influx of resources through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) creates new opportunities for floodplain restoration and natural infrastructure efforts, and compels the urgent need for federal agency leadership to ensure that the hundreds of billions of dollars in pending infrastructure investments across sectors are designed and sited in a manner that is climate-resilient and protective of natural floodplains. Simultaneously, federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are revisiting key regulatory and policy questions – some for the first time in decades – with long-lasting and intersecting implications for floodplains, wetlands, water resources, and floodplain communities. This presentation will dig into the details of recent and anticipated agency actions and increased federal dollars, and explore the associated challenges and opportunities ahead.

3) Rolling Conservation Easements: One Tool for Nature Based Retreat
Mary-Carson Stiff, Wetlands Watch, mc.stiff@wetlandswatch.org
Co-presenters: Madison Teeter, madison.teeter@wetlandswatch.org

Abstract: Wetlands Watch, a non-profit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, is helping coordinate the recordation of the first private rolling conservation easement in the United States. In partnership with a local land trust, The Living River Trust, Wetlands Watch is working with the Elizabeth River Project to develop a rolling conservation easement that will be placed over the organization’s new Resilience Lab headquarters. A rolling conservation easement “rolls” along with shoreline encroachment due to sea level rise, enforcing development restrictions that reflect the changing parcel characteristics. In addition to prohibiting new and future development, this legal instrument can help facilitate the migration of shoreline buffers, dunes, living shorelines, and wetlands, ensuring species survival and preservation of ecosystem services, such as erosion control, flood mitigation, habitat, and water quality. Recently featured in The Washington Post, “Meet the multimillion-dollar building deliberately built to drown,” this legal instrument could provide one tool to help local governments plan for retreat as sea levels rise. In addition to being a planning tool, property owners who agree to a rolling easement could receive federal or state tax benefits. In this way, property owners can play a crucial role in how communities prepare for climate change, while also receiving financial benefits. This presentation will focus on the coordination between Wetlands Watch and various stakeholders to record the rolling conservation easement, and how this process can potentially work in other coastal communities. Additionally, this presentation will highlight lessons learned from recording the rolling easement, including the importance of transparency among all stakeholders involved. Finally, this presentation will explore how retreat planning and policies, such as the use of rolling easements, could be credited through the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System.