NSF Abstract

This Civic Innovation Challenge is jointly funded by the Division of Ocean Science and the Office of the Assistant Director in the Directorate for Geosciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The research addresses the increase in sea level and coastal flooding, that is affecting Maine?s coastal communities, to enhance their resilience to climate change impacts. Near and long-term flood projections, that combine local observations of water level and flood impacts, are critical to communities? abilities to adapt to the new climate and sea level reality. Nationally, sea level rise adaptation-research commonly focuses on urban centers where the greatest losses in property value occur. Rural coastal communities, however, face unique adaptation challenges due to their remoteness, isolation from central planning agencies, limited resources, and intergenerational poverty. According to the US Census Bureau, Maine is the most rural state in the US with only 11% of its municipalities having a town planner. The absence of a local planner or insufficient to no regional planning support affects 72% of these communities. To help these communities, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute leads a team of civic, community, education, and industry partners in co-designing and building social and technological infrastructure to expand the collection of local tidal flooding data and leverage it to build resilience in small and rural Maine coastal communities. Partners include four coastal Maine communities where low-cost tide gauges will be installed to collect local water levels in flood prone areas. The project will also support local capacity development to run and sustain a community science program that collects geo- and time-referenced observations of local flood events and impacts, develop data products for use by the community, and provide mini-grants to leverage the new data to support ongoing flood resilience projects. An integral component of the work is the engagement of local youth by piloting a three-part curriculum that includes participation in the community science program and working with local municipal leaders on climate adaptation. Localized and co-developed data supporting coastal flood resilience will provide information that is foundational to multi-dimensional, multi-sector, climate adaptation planning issues faced by a broad array of community stakeholders. The project will also involve and train a female postdoc and two early-career project staff, contributing to a new generation of resilience researchers and practitioners who can work collaboratively with civic leaders and community members.

The CIVIC Innovation Challenge is a collaboration with Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation. Sea level rise has created a situation of routine flooding in many of Maine?s coastal communities. Such flood projections that combine local observations of water level and flood impacts are essential for communities to adapt to this new reality. Maine faces significant barriers to building coastal flood resilience due to sparse tide gauge coverage combined with observation-based flood thresholds and the absence of a network of researchers, civic leaders, engaged community members (particularly youth), and resilience practitioners ready to leverage such data to support coastal planning and resilience. To address this need, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has assembled a team of civic, community, education, and industry partners to create social and technology infrastructure that expands critical coastal flooding data and leverages it to help with community resilience. The pilot project will be initiated in four coastal Maine communities (Portland, Boothbay Harbor, St. George, and Machias) that are experiencing regular flooding and that have a range of demographics and municipal capacities. Research questions to be addressed include: What is the optimal location for tide gauges so they can inform resilience planning at the municipal scale? Can a well-structured community science program yield data that supports resilience activities and catalyzes community engagement, particularly among youth, to drive flood adaptation? Project success relies on partnering with community organizations to develop local capacity for running and sustaining coastal flooding community science programs that collect geo- and time-referenced flood impact data. This is done by working with youth and creating a three-part science curriculum with middle and high school teachers who will pilot it in their classes. Goals are to develop students' conceptual understanding of the science and physical drivers of coastal flooding, have them participate in collecting and contributing data to the coastal flooding community science program, and support their participation in a facilitated coastal resilience learning exercise alongside adult community member mentors. The science team will use data and information obtained through this approach to develop and provide customized data products. It will also issue community mini-grants that support ongoing flood resilience projects in each targeted community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Abstract #2321506