Federal Resilience Programs: NOAA National Sea Grant College Program | Article

Coastal communities are home to more than 128 million people, which is about 40 percent of the total U.S. population. Another 30 million people, in both the United States and Canada, live around the Great Lakes. These areas also have a high economic output that supports businesses, livelihoods, and economies around the country. If U.S. coastal counties were a country, they would have the third-highest gross domestic product in the world, behind only the United States as a whole and China.

However, these regions are also at high risk from a variety of environmental threats. On the east coast, sea levels are rising by about one inch every three years, which is the highest rate for sea level rise in the country. By 2100, up to an estimated 13.1 million people in the United States could be at risk of displacement because of rising sea levels. Coastal communities face a number of other environmental challenges, including increasingly severe storms, ocean acidification, pollution, loss of coastal wetlands, and warming water temperatures.

While not on the coast, many similar threats plague the Great Lakes region, which contains more than 84 percent of the above-ground, liquid freshwater in North America and provides roughly 40 million people with water for drinking and crop irrigation. Algal blooms, habitat loss, and pollution stress native species and reduce the capacity of the lakes to provide ecosystem services. The destruction of nearby wetlands has resulted in habitat loss for fish and other wildlife, as well as reduced pollution control.

Federal programs, such as the National Sea Grant College Program, aim to make coastal communities more resilient to climate change impacts and other environmental threats.

What is the National Sea Grant College Program (Sea Grant)?

Sea Grant is a program under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that brings together 34 different university Sea Grant Programs into one network. It was established in 1966 through the Sea Grant College and Program Act (P.L. 89-688). The university programs conduct research, release educational materials, assist with community projects, and hold trainings on creating and maintaining a healthy coastal environment and economy. There is a Sea Grant Program located in at least one university in every coastal state (including Alaska and Hawaii), as well as in the states bordering the Great Lakes and in Puerto Rico and Guam.

How does Sea Grant relate to climate adaptation and resilience?

A large portion of Sea Grant’s work is dedicated to building more resilient communities and economies. Sea Grant provides resilience training workshops to communities, helps protect against environmental hazards, and assists in implementing sustainable development practices. The Sea Grant Programs use a variety of methods in their resilience work, including nature-based solutions like living shorelines, technologies like advanced satellite mapping, and stakeholder engagement. To help homeowners, Sea Grant has created locally-relevant handbooks with critical preparedness information for coastal communities. The programs also consider current and future climate impacts when conducting resilience work.

How does Sea Grant work?

Using funds appropriated by Congress, Sea Grant provides funding for work in four focus areas: he althy coastal ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, resilient coastal communities and economies, and environmental literacy and workforce development. The work can take place at the national, state, or local level, with special opportunities available to university students through university-based Sea Grant Programs. The university programs involve a collaboration between professors, researchers, students, and a network of thousands of coastal professionals.

Sea Grant in Action

The small city of Tybee Island, Georgia, with a population of 3,000, is a small barrier island vulnerable to climate change-driven sea level rise. Since 1935, the sea levels along the island coast have risen 10 inches. Higher tides, stronger storm surges, and rising sea levels are already affecting the island and have the potential to further harm the island’s local economy and ecosystem.

In 2016, the City of Tybee Island helped create Georgia’s first sea level rise plan. This plan used research and recommendations developed by the Georgia Sea Grant Program, whose work on the island started in 2012. Through a participatory research process involving more than 4,000 people, the researchers studied what methods could best be used to help the island adapt to climate change. One major outcome of the plan was that it helped improve the City of Tybee Island’s flood insurance rating, helping property owners save more than $700,000 in flood insurance.

Since the plan was adopted, the city has been working on a number of resilience projects, including restoring dune ecosystems, expanding stormwater treatment capacity, and raising vulnerable pump stations. In the future, the city plans to assess the possibility of installing green infrastructure projects such as sand dunes or other buffers. The island’s resilience plan has served as a model for other coastal communities working to protect their shorelines and livelihoods.

What is the outcome of Sea Grant?

Between February 2019 and January 2020, Sea Grant Programs restored and protected more than 1.8 million acres of habitat and helped create and sustain 998 businesses and 10,404 jobs. An $80 million investment in Sea Grant in 2019 resulted in $412.4 million in economic benefits. On the outreach side, the programs have provided 1,224 resilience training events to communities and reached almost 900,000 K-12 students.

What is the current status of Sea Grant?

In December 2020, the 116th Congress passed the National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-221), which reauthorized the Sea Grant Program through Fiscal Year 2025. The legislation provides about $483 million for the Sea Grant Program between FY2021 and FY 2025.

Author: Emma Johnson