Through the Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) process, North Carolina Sea Grant provides a variety of research and capacity-building initiatives to assist communities in assessing risks and providing support for developing approaches to manage that risk as appropriate.

This document is intended as a guide for entities interested in assessing their vulnerability to coastal hazards. Coastal vulnerability is a complex topic that requires an understanding of some basic terms, concepts, and historical context to be effectively assessed. 

A survey instrument that helps a community characterize its resilience through the connectivity of the community's various planning documents.

Coastal communities across the nation are faced with the challenge of how to adapt to coastal inundation associated with climate change and sea level rise. As part of the National Sea Grant Coastal Communities Climate Adaptation Initiative (CCCAI), the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium (NJSGC) and its partners, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Office of Coastal Management (NJOCM), Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) and Stevens Institute of Technology, conducted community-based, climate adaptation demonstration projects in Cape May Point, Little Silver and Oceanport, New Jersey. 

A model document for incorporating coastal hazards and climate change into state mandated Local Comprehensive Planning, together with maps that assess vulnerability, and recommendations based on lessons learned from other places for the community to adapt to rising seas.