NROC Priority

Coastal Hazards Resilience​

Providing data, tools, and solutions to prepare for coastal storms, erosion, and inundation

Goal

Foster collaboration and mitigate impacts of coastal erosion, flooding, and storms through region-wide dissemination of data, tools, best practices, and case studies.

Overview

The Coastal Hazards Resilience (CHR) Committee was established to inform and recommend to the Council how best to approach regional issues and coordinate activities related to coastal hazards in New England. Coastal communities throughout the region have experienced coastal storm events that have led to loss of life and major damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure, and shorelines. NROC’s Coastal Hazards Resilience Committee provides a regional forum for advancing coastal resilience across New England communities by sharing knowledge, products, best practices, tools, and strategies.

Data and tools are needed throughout the region to support efforts to identify potential inundation zones from storm surge, erosion, and sea level rise. Habitat considerations and regulatory barriers for advancing living shorelines need to be explored and best practices for overcoming these challenges need to be identified and implemented.

There are many coastal resilience projects addressing these issues throughout the region and coordination is necessary to ensure management needs are identified, projects are complementary, and communities are included in the development of solutions.

Two people stand next to a sign saying Road Closed as they watch huge storm waves battering houses on the coast at Wells, Maine
Storm waves at Wells, Maine, in March 2024. Photo: Arthur Villator / Shutterstock

Projects

People planting native marsh grass along the shoreline of a tidal marsh in Durham, New Hampshire

Living Shorelines

Advancing implementation of successful living shorelines projects in New England by increasing understanding of regulatory issues, monitoring techniques, and application of living shorelines approaches.
Read More Living Shorelines

Committee

Participating organizations include:

  • Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (Co-chair)
  • Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (Co-chair)
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Co-chair)
  • Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation
  • Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency, Region 1
  • Maine Coastal Program
  • Maine Geological Survey
  • New Hampshire Coastal Program
  • New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
  • Northeast States Emergency Consortium
  • Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems
  • University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Download Work Plan 2024-2028 (PDF)

Contact

For more information about the NROC Coastal Hazards Resilience Committee and its activities, contact Joan LeBlanc, NROC, jleblanc@northeastoceancouncil.org.

Archive: Coastal Hazards Resilience

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