Three Hurricane Sandy-funded tools added to U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

The suite of projects funded by Department of Interior Hurricane Sandy grants coordinated by the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) to investigate threats to coastal systems and species is resulting in new resources that connect the dots between threats and the ways in which systems, species, and habitats are responding. Now three of those tools have been added to the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, a national clearinghouse for scientific information developed to support climate resilience.

The Toolkit now features the North Atlantic LCC-supported Coastal Resilience Resource List, Aquatic Connectivity Assessment and Prioritization Tool, and Beach and Tidal Habitat Inventories.

Here is a snapshot of the tools: 

Coastal Resilience Resource List - Taking stock of work that is already underway reveals new opportunities to collaborate

This inventory of work being undertaken by coastal Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and partner organizations to address coastal resilience issues in the Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Caribbean regions offers a one-stop shopping list to support a growing coastal resilience network. The list includes completed, ongoing, and planned projects, reports, guidebooks, programs, online support tools, and papers, searchable by type, organization, or date that showcase the work being done to support ecological and human community resilience.

See the tool in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Access the tool on the North Atlantic LCC Products page

For more information contact North Atlantic LCC Coastal Resilience Research Associate Emily Powell:

Aquatic Connectivity Assessment and Prioritization Tool - Connecting partners to reconnect rivers and streams across the Northeast

Both a network of partners and a source of shared resources, this tool provides a collaborative framework for taking on the growing challenge of assessing and upgrading the hundreds of thousands of outdated road-stream crossings across the region that represent barriers to wildlife movement and pose flooding risks to communities. More than assessment and prioritization, the network offers standard training on data collection protocols, and a shared database of road-stream crossings in 13 states. Database users can also identify restoration opportunities that will have the greatest impact on improving aquatic organism passage.

See the tool featured in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Access the tool on the North Atlantic LCC Products page

For more information contact North Atlantic LCC Coastal Resilience Coordinator Megan Tyrell:

Beach and Tidal Inlet Habitat Inventories - A bird's-eye view of the coast offers perspective on threats to beach-dependent species

This collection of reports, databases, and imagery developed through meticulous analysis in Google Earth provides a detailed snapshot of human modifications to ocean facing beaches and inlets on barrier islands. This comprehensive inventory documents public or private ownership status, the length of shoreline armoring, jetties, groins, beach fill or scraping, as well as inlet openings and closures from mid-coast Maine through Virginia. The inventories cover three time periods before Hurricane Sandy, immediately after Hurricane Sandy, and three years after post-storm recovery efforts and can be used to assess the degree of barrier island/beach modifications between communities, states, and throughout the study area.

See the tool featured in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Access the tool on the North Atlantic LCC Products page

For more information contact North Atlantic LCC Coastal Resilience Coordinator Megan Tyrell: