Climate & Energy

Staying Afloat: Assessing the long-term financial impacts of sea level rise adaptation solutions in a historic coastal community

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2021 - 2024

View of Crisfield harbor from the water — Image via The City of Crisfield, MD

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy and George Mason University, the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) worked to provide rural communities with the tools and data necessary to make financially and socially responsible decisions for adapting to climate-induced flooding from sea level rise, storms, and precipitation.

Using various modeling and inundation scenarios as well as damage estimates, the project team identified policy and financial opportunities for and barriers to implementation of the financially and socially responsible adaptation strategies, and made recommendations for overcoming these barriers.

The project team worked with the Town of Crisfield and Somerset County, Maryland to conduct a sea-level rise vulnerability assessment to inform the strategic implementation of climate adaptation strategies based on the strategy sustainability, community flood-risk reduction benefits, and long-term financial impacts. Through this case study, the team gathered data on the predicted local impacts of climate-induced flooding, assessed infrastructure vulnerabilities, and calculated the costs and benefits of different nature-based adaptation strategies – including a “no action” scenario. In addition to long-term financial implications and flood risk reduction, the order and timing of adaptation strategies was considered to inform an idealized, chronological adaptation methodology. The results were integrated into a decision support process for Crisfield and Somerset County that prioritizes relevant nature-based adaptation strategies.

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