| “In a lot of ways, we’re adding climate change as a new element to consider in things that are already going on.” | |
Zoë Johnson, Maryland Department of Natural Resources |
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Maryland recently completed phase II of its climate adaptation strategy, ending the state’s strategic planning phase. Coastal resource managers and other state officials are already using the planning documents to implement state-level adaptation measures addressing current and future climate change impacts.
“We have our strategic plans in place for the next five years,” says Zoë Johnson, program manager for Climate Change Policy in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Office for a Sustainable Future. “While these are living documents, we are done setting our short- to medium-time vision for moving forward for planning for climate change. We are now focused on implementation.”
Two climate change adaptation strategies are currently being used to guide state-level planning efforts. The first strategy, released in 2008, addresses the impacts associated with sea level rise and coastal storms. The second strategy, released early in 2011, addresses changes in precipitation patterns and increased temperature and the likely impacts to human health, agriculture, ecosystems, and the built infrastructure.
In addition to being instrumental in the development of the climate change adaptation strategies, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has led the state in developing a specific climate change adaptation policy.
The policy has already changed how the state makes its land and infrastructure investments, and determines habitat restoration projects, Johnson says.
“The intent of the policy,” she says, “is to lead by example, and along the way encourage and educate others in the methods for managing natural resources and designing facilities in light of a changing climate.”
Consequences
Sea level rise, increased storm intensity, extreme drought and heat waves, and intensified wind and rainfall events are some of the consequences of climate change that are expected to impact Maryland’s people, wildlife, land, and public investments.
“These impacts will affect many facets of our society and economy,” Johnson says, including the state’s agriculture industry, forestry and fishery resources, freshwater supply, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, highway system, historic and cultural landmarks, and public health.
For example, she notes that assessments of potential sea level rise impacts show that 371 miles of highways and 2,500 historic and archaeological sites are vulnerable to inundation. In a state where water quality in the Chesapeake Bay is of the highest priority, a troubling statistic for coastal managers is that thousands of septic systems are in inundation zones, including 5,200 in just one county.
“We’re already seeing impacts,” Johnson says. “Thirteen Chesapeake Bay islands once mapped on nautical charts have disappeared beneath the surface, an estimated 400,000 acres of land on the state’s Eastern Shore is gradually becoming submerged, and the state is currently losing approximately 580 acres of shoreline per year to erosion.”
She adds, “The threat of sea level rise alone poses many resource management challenges.”
Planning
On April 20, 2007, Governor Martin O’Malley signed an executive order establishing the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and charged it with developing an action plan to address the causes of climate change and prepare for the likely impacts.
The resulting Climate Action Plan document, released in August 2008, addressed impacts, mitigation, and economic concerns.
A key component of the plan was the phase I adaptation strategy on sea-level rise and coastal storms, which recommended a conservation vision and suite of 19 priority policy options for sea level rise adaptation and response. View the strategy by going to www.dnr.state.md.us/coastsmart/pdfs/comprehensive_strategy.pdf.
The phase I adaptation strategy was developed by the Adaptation and Response Working Group—one of three working groups created by the climate change commission. The Adaptation and Response Working Group was coordinated by the Department of Natural Resources staff and included 34 representatives from local governments, nongovernmental environmental organizations, trade associations, and academic, business, and citizen groups.
In 2008, two key pieces of sea level rise adaptation policy were adopted by the state, including the Living Shorelines Protection Act to address shore erosion issues, and the strengthening of provisions in the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area Protection Program Act, which among other things amended jurisdictional boundaries due to sea level rise and increased a vegetated buffer requirement from 100 to 200 feet for new development.
Phase II
The Climate Action Plan also recommended that the state needed to “do more work looking at other sectors’ adaptation needs beyond the coastal zone and sea level rise,” Johnson says.
Work on phase II of the plan began in 2009 using the Climate Action Plan’s scientific and technical assessment and the phase I strategy to lay the foundation and framework for the development of sector-based adaptation strategies.
Six new working groups were formed to look at planning on a sector-by-sector basis, Johnson says. Ultimately, more than 80 experts collaborated and held several larger stakeholder meetings to create the phase II comprehensive strategy document, which was released on January 24, 2011.
The report outlines strategies to reduce the impacts of sea level rise, increased temperature, and changes in precipitation within the sectors of human health, agriculture, forest and terrestrial ecosystems, bay and aquatic environments, water resources, and population growth and infrastructure. View the phase II strategy by going to www.dnr.maryland.gov/climatechange/climatechange_phase2_adaptation_strategy.pdf.
Both the phase I and phase II strategies are being used by state agencies to guide and prioritize state-level activities with respect to both climate science and adaptation policy, Johnson says.
Leading by Example
Once the content of the phase II strategy was clear, the Department of Natural Resources began developing its Building Resilience to Climate Change policy, which the agency issued in October 2010.
“This is our leading by example policy,” she says. “Our idea was to start to take the concepts of mitigation-related issues recommended in the planning documents and establish policies and practices and procedures of how we’re going to address those different issues.”
The policy guides the department’s investments in and management of land, resources, and assets to better understand, mitigate, and adapt to climate change. To do this, it establishes practices and procedures related to new land investments, facility siting and design, habitat restoration, government operations, research and monitoring, resource planning, and advocacy.
“As we clarify the practices and procedures in our agency, they will then be moved out to larger state investments and activities,” Johnson says. “It’s an implementing mechanism to move the state a step further and encourage others to plan for and to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
Implementation
So far, implementing the climate change policy has not required drastic changes within the agency, Johnson says.
“In terms of implementation, we’re focusing on low-cost solutions,” she says. “In a lot of ways, we’re adding climate change as a new element to consider in things that are already going on. Embedding climate change into existing processes does not require entering into the larger public debate.”
For instance, climate change issues have been folded into existing agency work to identify and protect at-risk species and habitats, as well as land acquisition efforts. These efforts are now targeted toward areas that provide an “ecosystem service” that minimizes the effects of climate change, such as a storm surge buffer, or a wetland or habitat migration corridor, which can help shield Maryland’s shoreline and interior from the impacts of sea level rise and coastal storms.
“One of the easiest ways to reduce vulnerability to climate change,” Johnson says, “is to avoid placing more infrastructure in harm’s way.”
To address this, the agency is now siting and designing all new facilities and infrastructure to avoid or minimize anticipated climate change impacts, particularly sea level rise. For instance, the new visitor center at the Harriet Tubman State Park was designed with sea level rise in mind and will be elevated two feet above the existing 100-year base flood elevation.
To assist local governments with reducing their climate change vulnerability, the department is administering a competitive grants program to provide financial and technical assistance with planning and permitting activities.
A series of policy tools are also under development, including sea level rise adaptation easements, community infrastructure service designations, sound investment policy criteria, and strategic partnership development.
Progress
While Maryland has made notable progress on both the climate change and sea level rise fronts, more work remains to be done, Johnson says. “Continued progress will take time, fiscal resources, flexibility, and continual commitment.”
There are also technical needs that must come from other sources, such as better climate information at finer resolutions and scales.
“We need better climate information that can be applied on the ground here in Maryland. We’re having success integrating climate change considerations into other planning processes, but what we need is detailed and accurate climate information,” Johnson says.
She adds, “What we have done is set the stage for undertaking future activities.”
