Wetlands Watch and Virginia Planners Develop Climate Change Adpatation Toolkit
Planners jumped into a facilitated exercise to refine a list of planning, land use, and regulatory tools that Wetlands Watch has been developing
Eastern Virginia sees the impacts of sea level rise with each storm - but what can we do about it? Wetlands Watch is working to answer that question.
Wetlands Watch teamed this month with two dozen planners in Norfolk , Virginia , to work on a checklist of tools Virginia localities can use to start adaptation to clmate change impacts. At the annual meeting of the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Assocation we hosted a full afternoon session to enlist the help of professional planners working in Virginia in developing a list of potetntial adaptation tools.
Planners jumped into a facilitated exercise to refine a list of planning, land use, and regulatory tools that Wetlands Watch has been developing over its four years of work in tidewater Virginia on climate change adaptation. The collaboration yielded a wide range of approaches that could be applied today in Virginia to help localties deal with clmate change impacts - most notably the sea level rise we are experiencing throughout eastern Virginia .
Next steps?
Finish the checklist using an on-line collaboration with the planners at the meeting and enlist others who want to help.
Publish the checklist on line and develop a web clearinghouse of information on climate change impacts and adaptation approaches that Virginians can use today.
Develop a network of planners, private sector companies, and elected government officials who want to be proactive in dealing with climate change/sea level rise.
Push local and state policymakers to start using these tools.
Virginians are ready to face the future - they just need the tools and some leadership. Wetlands Watch will try to provide both in coming months.
Skip Stiles
Executive Director
