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RI Coastal Resources Management Council

...to preserve, protect, develop, and restore coastal resources for all Rhode Islanders

CRMC's Fugate to speak at the White House

September 9, 2016, WAKEFIELD – R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) Executive Director Grover Fugate will be traveling next week to Washington, D.C., to speak to officials regarding the Shoreline Change (Beach) Special Area Management Plan.

Fugate will be speaking to members of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, his Economic Analysis Unit, and the Council on Environmental Quality when he visits the White House on September 15.

The cabinet members, on behalf of the President, are interested in the Beach SAMP process, the tools that have come from the plan thus far, including STORMTOOLS, SLAMM, shoreline change maps, and CERI. STORMTOOLS is a comprehensive mapping tool designed to help homeowners and municipalities better understand their risks from coastal storms and flooding, and plan for the realities of sea level rise. For more information, go to https://stormtools-mainpage-crc-uri.hub.arcgis.com/ .

Another useful tool is the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) maps for the coastal wetlands of all 21 Rhode Island coastal communities. The maps are designed to show how coastal wetlands could transition and migrate onto adjacent upland areas under projected rates of sea level rise (1,3, and 5 feet) in the near future. These maps are intended to support state and local community planning efforts, and help decision makers prepare for and adapt to future coastal wetland conditions. The CRMC has also updated its shoreline change maps, showing the rate of shoreline change from 1939 (the first year of recorded shoreline change measurements) to 2003-2004.

CERI (Coastal Environmental Risk Index), created for the Beach SAMP by its research team, is the first ever tool in Rhode Island that will provide an objective, quantitative assessment of risk to both structures and infrastructure from storm surge and waves in the presence of changing climate conditions, particularly sea level rise. The index, a GIS-based tool, assesses risk in the event of storm surges, including flooding and waves, taking sea level rise and shoreline erosion and/or accretion into account.

The White House officials are particularly interest in how Rhode Island is integrating these tools across the economic sectors and how they are being received.

As part of the ongoing training and outreach to coastal municipalities, the CRMC has also been involved with the Rhode Island Green Infrastructure Project (GRIP), funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, focused on using green infrastructure tools and techniques to address issues related to stormwater and coastal flooding from storm surge and sea level rise. Similarly, the CRMC has worked with Save The Bay over the last five years, with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, on implementing 16 shoreline adaptation projects in seven coastal communities. These projects addressed impacts from coastal flooding and erosion by removing or relocating damaged public infrastructure such as broken pavement, and replacing it with vegetation and stormwater management practices.

For more information on all of these projects, go to http://www.crmc.ri.gov/climatechange.html and http://www.crmc.ri.gov/coastalresilience.html.


Stedman Government Center
Suite 116, 4808 Tower Hill Road, Wakefield, RI 02879-1900
Voice 401-783-3370 • Fax 401-783-2069 • E-Mail cstaff1@crmc.ri.gov

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