Outreach and Adaptive Strategies for Climate Change: the Role of NOAA Sea Grant Extension in Engaging Coastal Residents and Communities
Coastal residents will need to make decisions in the coming years and generations about how to adapt to a changing climate. Effective preparation for possible effects of climate change includes engagement of resource managers, planners, public works officials, coastal zone managers, community development specialists, fishermen, mariners, seafood processors, coastal transport businesses, tourists, coastal businesses, resident and property owners.
An important part of adapting to a changing climate is helping people think through and adopt new practices applicable to their respective regions. Separate from educational efforts, climate information must be presented as locally relevant before it can result in significant adaptations in behavior and practices. Management decisions must be based on unique local ecosystem and stakeholder variations.
NOAA Sea Grant is ideally suited to determining local information needs, identifying adaptive strategies and barriers to the adoption of these strategies. Sea Grant forms the link between researchers and coastal communities and residents and provides a mechanism for productive dialogue.
Figure courtesy of Michigan Sea Grant, originally published in Outreach and Adaptive Strategies for Climate Change: the Role of NOAA Sea Grant Extension in Engaging Coastal Residents and Communities, white paper, 2008.
 The probable impacts of climate change to the Great Lakes region differ in some respects from the forecasts for the marine coasts – for example, most early modeling efforts describe decreased water levels, with estimates of 0.3 to 1.4 meters below present lake levels (“Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region”, Union of Concerned Scientists, 2003). Understanding how these impacts will play out in our region and translating the best available science for local communities to use in their planning for climate change is an important Sea Grant role.
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