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Climate vulnerability research is enhanced by stakeholder engagement as coastal communities are increasingly vulnerable to climate-driven impacts, yet these impacts are rarely evenly distributed across space and stakeholder feedback is not always well incorporated into the process. While often used in applied management applications, integrated spatially explicit assessments of multi-faceted vulnerability and hazard less commonly appear in the scientific literature, especially those that are transferable across geographies and risk metrics. Since many geographies lack an integrated, stakeholder-driven assessment of multiple hazards and vulnerabilities within the same assessment, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science developed a transferable and integrated community vulnerability assessment framework (Framework) that relies primarily upon available secondary data and is supplemented with stakeholder-derived primary data. Using blended approaches in stakeholder engagement, we present the Framework’s six methodological steps as recently applied in Los Angeles County, California: iterative partner engagement, indicator and index development, vulnerability assessment, hazard assessment, risk assessment, and reengagement for adaptation action. We conclude that boundary-spanning organizations such as Sea Grant Extension programs can play a crucial role in participatory science and stakeholder needs assessments, and emphasize the need for continued stakeholder engagement in climate science.
Shoreline hardening is a method of coastal hazard protection that is often implemented by government agencies and individual property owners. As awareness of the potential negative effects of shoreline hardening has increased, natural and nature-based approaches have gained in popularity. Most research related to shoreline protection has focused on understanding the environmental and ecological effects. However, for hybrid, nature-based approaches, in particular, there is limited information available to compare their monetary costs. To fill this gap, this study used information collected from public shoreline protection projects within the New England and Mid-Atlantic areas to estimate the costs of these measures based on the materials used, such as vegetation, sand, and/or stone. This approach allows for a detailed measurement of potential project inputs and provides needed cost information on the types of materials local governments and other stakeholders may use in their shoreline protection approaches. Results suggest that approaches that use natural materials tend to cost less than those that use more traditional, engineered materials, and nature-based approaches tend to cost somewhere in-between. Specifically, projects can be divided into four subgroups based on their average per-unit costs: (A) walls
Before evaluating the abundance and quality of nature in a city, one must define the concept of nature according to resident experience and climatological conditions. For Los Angeles (L.A.) County, home to a sociologically diverse and highly developed city in a Mediterranean climate that experienced drought conditions for the last decade, this represents a formidable theoretical and empirical challenge. In support of an Integrated Vulnerability Assessment, we developed an index of natural resources with the aid of local partnerships. This effort required local expert participation and resulted in the creation of a large database of available regional data. This index was created to investigate the spatial footprint of natural resources in relation to predicted high risk natural hazard areas. This paper demonstrates analytical applications of this index, which consists of six component indicators: greenness, biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, significant ecological areas, tree canopy cover, and wetland cover. Data for each component were compiled into a geodatabase, scaled, aggregated to Census block group areas, and combined to create the natural resources index (the Index). The Index can then be compared with natural hazard spatial data to determine relative vulnerability to these hazards, interactions with other types of vulnerabilities, and where adaptive capacity may be lacking. Results highlight areas of opportunity for multifaceted risk mitigation and adaptation efforts.
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