With increased storm activity and flooding from climate change, the resilience of South Portland’s coastline has never been more challenged. Last week, we introduced Climate Ready Casco Bay, a coastal resilience project happening in our region. An important part of building this coastal resilience is educating community members about future climate risks, so this week, we’ll discuss upcoming resilience projects and how you can get involved.
South Portland placed a series of “high water mark” signs, including at Bug Light, Willard Beach and Mill Creek. They are designed to illustrate the current highest tide, and the potential future tide, with added sea level rise. Courtesy photo
South Portland is already leading the way with projects designed to combat climate change, such as major investments in our storm water infrastructure and turning toward green infrastructure planning. The city partnered with the Army Corps of Engineers to install high water mark signs in significant locations, and are planning forward with climate resilience in mind for our 2024 Comprehensive Plan.
Dynamic flood model
In late November, the city was awarded a Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and Future Community Action grant to complete flood modeling and educate community members about coastal resilience and the future of flood risk here in South Portland.
“The really exciting piece of this grant is that it brings together several projects which will inform policy making and planning for our 2024 Comprehensive Plan, ” said Julie Rosenbach, sustainability director for the city of South Portland.
The three distinct projects that will be linked together include:
1. The completion of a Dynamic Flood Inundation Model – a GIS tool that will produce floodplain maps with dynamic details and can be overlaid with up-to-date building and infrastructure footprints.
2. Engagement programming, including workshops, community walks, and surveys developed by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
3. Climate Ready Casco Bay – A two-year project to assess and plan for nature-based coastal resilience solutions, discussed in last week’s Sentry with oversight by both Greater Portland Council of Governments and Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
“This grant will take these GIS mapping models, and turn them into an engagement tool,” Rosenbach said, “which will help with the visualization of the potential risks to our coastline, and be used for future planning efforts.”
The engagement tool will be available for public interface on the city of South Portland webpage soon.
Next steps; Getting involved
As these projects are implemented over the next 18 months to inform the Comprehensive Plan, we need your input and your data. In the near term, walking tours of South Portland’s most at-risk neighborhoods and coastlines will commence this summer to coincide with the coming highest predicted King Tides.
Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Coastal Flooding Community Science project and “Planning Forward” workshops, which are designed to gather community input of individual neighborhoods, will begin in late spring and continue through the summer.
You can contribute to these projects by providing photos, observations, and data about flooding in your community through the institute’s Ecosystem Investigation Network that is housed within the Coastal Flooding Community Science project.
To learn more about the Coastal Flooding Community Science project, and to sign up to contribute your environmental data to the Ecosystem Investigation Network, visit www.gmri.org/projects/coastal-flooding-community-science.
To check out the city’s current data and story map, visit www.southportland.org/departments/sustainability-office.
Our Sustainable City is a recurring column in the Sentry intended to provide residents with news and information about sustainability initiatives in South Portland. Follow the Sustainability Office on Instagram and Facebook @soposustainability.
Steve Genovese is a Greater Portland Council of Governments Resilience Corps fellow serving in the South Portland Sustainability Office on an 11-month term. He can be reached at sgenovese@southportland.org.
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