Last Friday we had our CHRN meeting at Ecology Headquarters in Olympia, Washington. About half of the network was present, providing great depth and expertise for both the presentations and discussion sections of the meeting. The brainstorming section gave members the opportunity to discuss applying Floodplains by Design to coastal areas in smaller groups. This was followed by a larger group discussion regarding both managerial aspects and the future direction of the network. In addition, 7 presentations highlighted some past, current, and future projects by CHRN members. These presentations not only provided project summaries and the opportunity for follow-up discussion questions, but also identified areas where involvement by the network would be beneficial.  

To see the full agenda, click here. 

To view the powerpoint presentations, click here.

Washington's Coastal Training Program (CTP) is part of a national initiative that aims to provide coastal managers a better understanding of environmental issues, science and environmental regulations. The CTP has released their spring schedule that includes classes on Wetlands, Coastal Inundation Mapping and Presentation Skills. 
To see the full spring schedule click here. 

The CTP offers a range of classes under three overarching topics:
1) Managing the Effects of Shoreline Development
2) Physical and Biological Processes 
3) Shoreline and Environmental Laws and Administrative Procedures.
To see the full course catalog click here. 

Classes offered by the CTP have been yielding positive reviews: 

• “The instructors were all fantastic, the class was well organized and the information presented was timely and useful.”

• “Speakers were all excellent and knowledgeable. They are the ones involved in the work and they did an excellent job providing the information in a way that was understandable for us.”
  

CHRN Member Gretchen Glaub from Puget Sound Partnership had this to say of her experience with the CTP:
"It was beneficial to take some time out of a regular work schedule to interact with groups of a broader perspective. I appreciated the connections made with other class participants. The instructors were really engaging and the format was dynamic enough to keep partipant's attention throughout. I was excited to utilize the new skills and experiences into my work in the future. " 

For more information on Washington's CTP click here or contact CHRN member Bobbak Talebi. 

Since 2008, the Nature Conservancy and its partners have developed a host of online mapping decision support tools and apps that provide planners a process to guide decisions aimed to reduce both the ecological and socio-economic risks of coastal hazards while promoting nature-based solutions *. Coastal Resilience was awarded the 2014 winner of the Global Disaster Resilience app challenge in the Best Professional and Scientific App category for disaster risk reduction. The winning app in the Coastal Resilience tool platform is called Coastal Defense, developed by a team led by The Nature Conservancy, Natural Capital Project, US Geological Survey, University of California at Santa Cruz, and University of Southern Mississippi. The app quantifies how natural habitats including oyster and coral reefs, marshes, mangroves, beach dunes and seagrass beds protect coastal areas by decreasing wave-induced erosion and inundation. The latest version is set to be released later this month in Southeast Florida. The Coastal Resilience tool and Coastal Defense app have been used on a wide range of risk reduction and adaptation solution applications both domestically and globally, including in the Hurricane Sandy affect region, and in our own Puget Sound.

In Puget Sound the Coastal Defense app has been used to help reduce the risk of flooding from wave height and energy by promoting the use of coastal habitats instead of or in addition to man-made barriers. County planners and the diking districts have the ability to model both natural and man-made infrastructure scenarios to determine the most cost-effective solutions that protect both tidal marshes and farmland. The app was specifically designed to measure tidal marsh impacts on reducing harsh wave energy while decreasing the risk of erosion and overtopping to levees in Skagit Bay. See the app in Puget Sound at http://maps.coastalresilience.org/pugetsound. 

 “Coastal Defense is among a suite of apps in the Coastal Resilience tool that helps communities assess risk and vulnerability and identify conservation, restoration and adaptation solutions,” says lead coastal resilience manager Zach Ferdana of The Nature Conservancy. “Providing tools to understand and clearly communicate how our natural resources increase coastal resilience is a part of the solution in addressing hazards such as storm surge and sea level rise.”

*This coordinated approach will also help identify projects that could receive both salmon recovery and flood risk reduction funding.

For more information about this award-winning app, click here.
See press release of award and recognition of disaster resilience apps here. 
To see where the Coastal Resilience tool exists around the world, click here. 
For a simulation to get better acquainted with some of the tools, click here.

Big thanks to CHRN member and TNC lead coastal resilience manager Zach Ferdana for his additional input and information for this post!