Weather and Social Data to Inform Participatory Planning Initiatives

Mary Austerman, Great Lakes Coastal Community Development Specialist at New York Sea Grant, discussed a collaborative effort with the National Weather Service to integrate weather and social science data to inform vulnerability assessments for coastal cities and towns along Lake Ontario. Austerman then described how this work feeds into a participatory planning process for communities vulnerable to repeated flooding events.

HIGHLIGHTS

Mary Austerman, Great Lakes Coastal Community Development Specialist, New York Sea Grant.

Download briefing transcript

• The New York Sea Grant uses a community-driven needs assessment survey approach to bring weather and social science data to decision-makers in New York’s Great Lakes region. The data addresses land use planning, watershed protection, sustainable energy discussions, and climate change hazards facing coastal communities (among other topics).

• One of 33 Sea Grant programs nationwide, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the New York State university system and Cornell University.

• In 2014, NYSG began reaching out to Great Lakes coastal communities to assess how they felt about climate change and climate change terminology, and determine the resources, tools, and data they needed for adaptation planning in the region. In the Great Lakes region, climate change is not openly embraced, so NYSG discussed resilience planning with public officials in terms of weather trends.

• When presented with chart and map data and a weather event assessment tool, community focus groups found the community self-assessment tool “Coastal Resilience Index” the most effective for their planning efforts. This index model was created by Gulf Coast communities to use when planning for hurricane vulnerability and response.

• The focus groups identified the need to customize the Coastal Resilience Index tool to match specific weather hazards in the Great Lakes region by including coastal flooding, flash flooding from precipitation and ice jams, ice storms, lake effect weather hazards, and wind storms.

• Experts from the National Weather Service, New York State and local agencies, and Cornell University collaborated and created a vulnerability assessment for Great Lakes communities, New York’s Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Index. A Community Self-Assessment.

• This guide helps communities evaluate how various weather events will affect sectors of the community by comparing the event to a benchmark and a credible worst-case scenario 50 percent worse than the benchmark case. The guide also includes narratives and pictures of consequences from past weather events.

• NYSG Lake Ontario Inundation Mapping Tool: Coastal Flood Risk, which uses Lidar and elevation data to show flooding for various lake levels in communities along the shore.

• In 2017, Lake Ontario experienced a record flooding event that lasted for 3 months. To document the damage, NYSG asked residents for pictures and descriptions of how their lives were impacted and published the 2017 Lake Ontario Record-High Water Level Impact Survey This survey record helped communities plan for future flooding events and was used by state agencies to validate flood damage modeling tools.

• NYSG developed a case study for the 2017 flooding in Sodus Point, NY, which has one of the lowest elevations of any community along the Lake Ontario shore. The case used the Community Self-Assessment and the Inundation Mapping Tool to document the flood’s impact. With results from these tools, and using a Community Resilience Building process developed by NOAA and the Nature Conservancy, NYSG convened a community visioning workshop in Sodus Point.
  • Participants included residents, federal, state, and local government officials, and academics. The workshop evaluated how the flood impacted the community and developed flood damage mitigation strategies. The wor