Resilience Adaptation and Engineering AND Inland and Coastal Flooding

This subpage delves into critical discussions surrounding resilience, adaptation, engineering, and the challenges posed by inland and coastal flooding in Connecticut. Participants emphasized the urgent need to address climate change-induced hazards and enhance resilience within communities across the state.

The discussions highlighted the importance of fostering linkages between various research groups and planners to effectively share outcomes and enhance collaboration. Efforts to share information among researchers synthesizing climate impacts and downstream users, such as those assessing vulnerabilities of biological systems, were emphasized. Additionally, establishing linkages beyond academic groups, including collaborations with planners and policymakers, was seen as essential for informed decision-making and effective resilience planning.

Furthermore, the subpage underscored the need for utilizing up-to-date and fit-for-purpose datasets in interdisciplinary research and infrastructure design. Participants emphasized the importance of frequent updating of data repositories and metadata, as well as the need for curated directories to aid researchers in selecting appropriate datasets for their research needs. Harmonizing academic and commercial models and data was also identified as crucial for improving planning outcomes.

Communication of uncertainty emerged as another key theme, with a call for enhanced engagement to better convey the uncertainties associated with projections of coastal risk to policymakers and the public. Participants stressed the importance of tailoring communication of possible outcomes and uncertainties in a less technical and more intuitive manner to improve understanding among stakeholders. Decoupling geophysical drivers from their magnitudes in communication efforts was highlighted as valuable for optimal resource allocation and decision-making.

Lastly, discussions touched upon resource needs for enhancing research capabilities, with a focus on computational resources for climate researchers and data, computational, and human resources for planners. Participants emphasized the importance of access to resources such as sensors, computing power, and skilled personnel to enable fine-scale landscape modeling and support resilience-building efforts effectively.