GEI completed a series of local and regional vulnerability assessments for communities in southern Maine. The goals were to assist Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission (SMPDC) with informing communities about impacts from coastal hazards such as sea level rise and storm surge.
The first project with SMPDC focused on three towns and the impacts from sea level rise on property values, infrastructure, and populations. The second project was expanded to include three additional towns as well as inundation scenarios involving both sea level rise and storm surge. The most recent project with SMPDC, Climate Ready Coast, involved ten communities and used larger state-based datasets to assess impacts to infrastructure and wildlife habitats. GEI also used local zoning ordinances to estimate the potential for developing additional parcels (build-out scenarios) in each community and noted which parcels were at risk from coastal hazards.
A web map and web application were developed so local working groups could use the results from the vulnerability assessments to confirm or find new areas of concern and focus resiliency efforts in those areas.