Practitioners' Needs for Addressing the Challenges of Sea-Level Rise-A Qualitative Assessment

Abstract

Practitioners at the local and regional scale are under increased pressure to reduce risks to people and property posed by the threats of sea-level rise (SLR) and associated impacts. To achieve this, a dialog between practitioners and scientists is imperative. Current research documents impacts of SLR, evaluates local SLR adaptation activities, identifies barriers to action, and works to assess local adaptive capacity. Despite this work, there has been little qualitative assessment of practitioners' needs when it comes to translating SLR science into local changes. To fill this gap, we used a combination of semi-structured interviews and surveys. The interviews revealed practitioners' needs, the tools they use, the challenges they face, and the contexts in which they make decisions. The survey allowed practitioners to rank potential interventions according to the level of impact they believed it would have on coastal adaptation planning. In total our study includes the perspectives of 142 practitioners from 24 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Barbados. Corroborating earlier work, we find that resources broadly and funding specifically is the largest barrier faced by practitioners. We find that practitioners need more localized information and models supported by on the ground monitoring, decision support resources that allow for comparison of different scenarios, and communication tools that will enable them to engage with key audiences. These needs suggest a critical shift toward building trusted relationship between scientists and local practitioners and the need to bolster organizations that can support a bridge between these two contexts.

Keywords: climate change adaptation; decision support; resilience; science‐policy interface; sea‐level rise; usable science.

Figure 1

Map showing locations of survey and interview participants. Shaded states and territories (in blue) contain the location of a participant. Bolded lines between states indicate EPA regions of the United States.

Figure 2

The distribution of educational attainments (a) and years employed in coastal management (b) of our survey participants.

Figure 3

Job titles (a) and jurisdictional scales (b) of participants.

Figure 4

The relative number of mentions of the most common biophysical challenges related to sea‐level rise (SLR) as identified by interview participants.

Figure 5

A sunburst graphic depicting social and institutional challenges to SLR adaptation planning articulated by interview participants in a hierarchical format. The inner ring shows four categories drawn from the literature: (1) Resources, (2) Information, (3) Commitment/support, and (4) Political environment. The outer ring shows a greater level of detail, providing a comprehensive visualization of the data.

Figure 6

Percent of survey respondents who reported that the provided information needs, decision support needs, and communication tools and educational opportunities would be either very or extremely impactful.