Those interested in monitoring shoreline change in their communities have a new resource to help them get started – a web-based inventory of citizen science efforts to track coastal change in the U.S. The site, Communities Tracking Coastal Change, was created by NOAA Climate Program Office's Coastal Inundation Risk Team and Woods Hole Sea Grant.

Georgia Sea Grant secured funding from the Department of Defense and the National Sea Grant College Program to hire Michelle Covi as the country’s first Coastal Resilience DOD Liaison in 2021. For the last year, Covi has created a suite of reports and resources that are now being used by Sea Grant programs, military installations, and coastal resilience specialists across the region to inform collaborative resilience projects.

Through a joint competition with the U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP), ten new projects were selected for a total of $3.9 million in funding to translate research into application for communities. Additionally, Sea Grant programs across the nation received an additional total of $4.2 million in NOAA Sea Grant funds to increase local capacity, engagement, research, and implementation for addressing resilience challenges. 

Four Connecticut cities have joined a pilot project to boost community participation in climate change planning. Community activities in Bridgeport, New Haven, New London and Norwich are being led by Connecticut Sea Grant with support from NOAA, and will focus on climate risk communication and planning for community resilience.

Hurricanes. Flood events. Oil spills. When disaster strikes, communities come together to respond. NOAA Sea Grant and NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program are partnering to help communities respond to and recover from these occurrences through three projects that strengthen local preparedness measures.