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Addressing risks posed by changing climate conditions in coastal areas demands innovative strategies that intersect multiple disciplines including engineering, ecology, communication, climate science, and community planning. To be usable, it also requires engaging coastal stakeholders in the development of research questions, the assessment of implications of research for planning and policy, and the communication of research results. Yet traditional, disciplinary programs are poorly configured to train the workforce needed to assess coastal climate risk and to develop and deploy integrated strategies for increasing coastal climate resilience. This chapter discuss the successes and challenges to implementing the Coastal Climate Risk and Resilience (C2R2) Initiative, a transdisciplinary program, at a large university as well as the benefits for the student and faculty participants from evaluation and student learning outcome data.

The hazards posed by both accelerating rates of sea level rise and intensifying coastal storms have fostered a call for increased resiliency of coastal human communities and natural ecosystems. While sea level rise is a world-wide phenomenon, mitigating its impacts is a local decision-making challenge that requires site-specific remedies. To inform coastal communities in the state of New Jersey, USA of the risks posed by coastal flooding and to aid in adaptation planning, we undertook a series of integrated assessments to map and characterize various aspects of exposure and vulnerability. The resulting assessments have been incorporated into a suite of online decision-support tools as an outreach mechanism to aid coastal decision-makers. The tools have been incorporated under one umbrella, www.NJAdapt.org, allowing users to visualize flood hazards and sea level rise (NJ FloodMapper), to create maps (Coastal Hazard Profiler), to assess communities’ vulnerabilities, and to increase preparedness (Getting to Resilience). However well intentioned, for these online tools to be truly effective, they must be integrated into a broader decision-support system that includes substantive professional outreach and person-to-person interaction.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) was established in 2009 to enhance the vitality of the region's ocean ecosystem and economy. One of MARCO’s first action items was the development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal (ODP) to serve as an online platform to engage stakeholders across the region with the objective of improving their understanding of how ocean resources and places are being used, managed, and conserved. A key component is the Marine Planner, an interactive map-based visualization and decision support tool. These types of online tools are becoming increasingly popular means of putting essential data and state-of-the-art visualization technology into the hands of the agencies, industry, community leaders, and stakeholders engaged in ocean management planning. Under the new directives coming from the White House, the future of marine spatial planning is presently in a state of flux. However, even under a new governance structure and new emphasis on economic uses, the need to understand who is doing what where in the ocean isn’t going away. Feedback received from a recent series of state level trainings suggest that the portal is now "ready for prime time" to inform policy and decision-making as well as engagement with stakeholders. The Mid-Atlantic ODP has successfully incorporated a number of best practices, namely: 1) accommodating a diverse user group; 2) stakeholder data vetting and review; 3) integration with the planning effort; 4) and data that is seen as objective, comprehensive, up-to-date and regionally consistent. There continues to be a high degree of interest among the MARCO states to apply the ODP as a means to break down silos among decision-makers, to facilitate a step back and to enable a "big picture" of their ocean and the potential implications of coastal decisions and policies.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) was established in 2009 to enhance the vitality of the region's ocean ecosystem and economy. One of MARCO's first action items was the development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal to serve as an on-line platform to engage stakeholders across the region with the objective of improving their understanding of how ocean resources and places are being used, managed, and conserved. A key component is the Marine Planner, an interactive map-based visualization and decision support tool. These types of on-line tools are becoming increasingly popular means of putting essential data and state-of-the-art visualization technology into the hands of the agencies, industry, community leaders, and stakeholders engaged in ocean planning. However, to be effective, the underlying geospatial data has to be seen as objective, comprehensive, up-to-date and regionally consistent. To meet this challenge, the portal utilizes a distributed network of web map services from credible and authoritative sources. Website analytics and feedback received during the review and comment period of the 2016 release of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Action Plan confirm that the Data Portal is viewed as integral to this ocean planning process by the MidAtlantic Regional Planning Body and key stakeholders. While not all stakeholders may agree with specific planning decisions, there is broad based agreement on the need for better data and making access to that data widely available.

A phone survey was conducted in New Jersey in 2013 four months after the second of two major devastating tropical storms (Sandy in 2012 and Irene in 2011). The objective was to estimate public support for restricting land uses in flood zones, requiring housing to be built to resist storm waters, and otherwise increasing mitigation and resilience. Respondents who supported these mitigation and resilience policies disproportionately were concerned about global climate change, trusted climate scientists and the federal government, and were willing to contribute to a redevelopment program through taxes, bonds, and fees. They also tended to have collectivist and egalitarian worldviews. Half of the respondents supported at least four of the seven risk-reducing policies. How their support translates into public policy remains to be seen. Lack of willingness to personally fund these policies is an obstacle.

A phone survey was conducted in New Jersey in 2013 four months after the second of two major devastating tropical storms (Sandy in 2012 and Irene in 2011). The objective was to estimate public support for restricting land uses in flood zones, requiring housing to be built to resist storm waters, and otherwise increasing mitigation and resilience. Respondents who supported these mitigation and resilience policies disproportionately were concerned about global climate change, trusted climate scientists and the federal government, and were willing to contribute to a redevelopment program through taxes, bonds, and fees. They also tended to have collectivist and egalitarian worldviews. Half of the respondents supported at least four of the seven risk-reducing policies. How their support translates into public policy remains to be seen. Lack of willingness to personally fund these policies is an obstacle.

Presentation about reducing greenhouse gasses in New Jersey, produced by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Government agencies dealing with environmental issues have traditionally excluded the public from the regulatory decision-making process, opting instead to solicit public comment mainly after decisions have been made. Faced with increasing health threats from environmental contaminants and fearing a loss of control over decisions that affect their lives, the public is demanding to be involved throughout the regulatory process. Recent research on risk communication offers regulatory agencies a framework for developing new approaches to public involvement.