On September 27th and 28th, our Critical Issues intern attended a workshop hosted by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program: “Opportunities and Needs in Integrated Water Prediction, Risk Assessment, and Management for Coastal Resilience.” The first day focused on resilience issues along the Eastern seaboard. We have summarized highlights from the first day below:

 

•  “Today’s flood is tomorrow’s high tide.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management gave a broad overview, describing the impacts of sea level rise.

•  Thinking differently about coastal droughts. Research from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) describes how salinity (saltiness) of estuarine water can provide information about droughts in coastal communities.

•  Improving the availability of water quality data. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discussed the Water Quality Exchange, a growing resource which currently includes 290 million water quality measurements from federal, state, local, and citizen science groups.

•  “Sponginess of the city.” Work by the DC Natural Resources Administration aims to prevent runoff by absorbing rainwater with green infrastructure.

 

See the AMS Policy Program website for the full schedule of the workshop. Highlights from the second day of the workshop will be available soon.