“We realized that the best way to proceed was not the traditional regulatory approach.” |
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| Peter Slovinsky, Maine Geological Survey |
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On April 16, 2007, an intense storm, combined with high tides, generated waves of up to 30 feet along the Maine coast. The pounding waves and storm surge caused flooding and severe erosion in areas south of Portland.
It also provided an opportunity.
“It really helped people visualize on the ground what the potential future impacts of sea level rise could be if we don’t do anything,” says Peter Slovinsky, a marine geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. “Instead of needing a visualization tool, nature provided a visualization for us.”
With the impacts from the Patriot’s Day storm fresh in people’s minds, town and city managers from four coastal communities, the Maine Geological Survey, and the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission began working to create a regional adaptation strategy to respond to rising sea levels and become more resilient to coastal storms.
With financial support from the Maine State Planning Office and Coastal Program, the Saco Bay Sea Level Adaptation Working Group (SLAWG) has improved hazards mapping in the region, and one community has approved a new floodplain ordinance that requires structures to be elevated three feet above the base flood elevation—more than the one-foot minimum standard.
Other coastal communities in the state—and around the country—are taking note of the group’s success.
Mimicking Impacts
The opportunity from the Patriot’s Day storm came when simulations run by the Maine Geological Survey projected that the state’s highest annual tide with two feet of sea level rise would mimic the storm’s high water mark.
“It’s been easy to say, ‘Remember that storm? If sea level rise goes up two feet, we’ll have that several times a year in good weather, even without a storm,’” says Jonathan (J.T.) Lockman, planning director for the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission. “That’s been a very compelling way to get people to the table.”
It was so compelling that in 2008, managers from the Saco Bay communities of Saco, Scarborough, Old Orchard Beach, and Biddeford agreed to discuss the idea of creating a group that looked at sea level rise and storm surge impacts from both the municipal and regional perspectives.
Lockman says Saco Bay is “unique and perfect” for undertaking such an endeavor because it’s home to the largest expanse of contiguous beaches and coastal wetlands within the state. It also has one of the state’s worst erosion problems in Saco, and one of its worst flooding problems at Old Orchard Beach.
In addition, the four communities were already proactive in hazards issues and have a history of working together.
SLAWG Start
SLAWG grew out of a pilot project that the Maine Geological Survey conducted using lidar data to simulate the potential vulnerability from sea level rise of the built and natural environments in the community of Drakes Island Beach in Wells, Slovinsky says.
“We realized that the best way to proceed was not the traditional regulatory approach where the state works up data, comes up with a regulation, and imposes it on the local communities,” he says. “The work we did in Wells led to the idea of really focusing on municipal engagement and letting the local community run the show, while teaming with state and regional partners who can provide technical work and planning capabilities.”
Lockman adds, “Unless you engage city or town managers and council members—the officials that are really in charge of the purse strings for long-range capital planning projects like roads, flood control, and drainage—then you’ll never really see a difference.”
Finding Agreement
With funding from the Maine Coastal Program to get SLAWG started, the four participating communities signed an agreement to proceed with conducting a vulnerability assessment for sea level rise and storm surge, says Lockman.
A steering committee was created, which included two appointed members from each community. The committee then developed a detailed plan to create and implement SLAWG.
“One of the other unique things about this approach was that we actually had to have commitments from the municipalities for them to partake,” says Slovinsky. “They had to be willing to dedicate staff time, provide a small cash match, and work on ways to accommodate for sea level rise as a result.”
He adds, “Just to get those agreements to be able to move forward took nine months.”
More Accurate
One of the benefits of SLAWG has been exposing communities to technological advances in visualization and data, such as topographic lidar data.
“Our ground-truthed lidar data showed the contour of the actual inundation from the Patriot’s Day storm beautifully,” says Slovinsky. “It really made our simulations credible.”
One of the recommendations the group came up with was to use lidar data to update existing regulatory maps within the communities, significantly improving their accuracy.
Lockman notes that a lot of maps the communities had been using were U.S. Geological Survey quadrangles from the 1970s.
The group also developed a new transferable model floodplain ordinance requiring three feet of freeboard, or the elevation of structures above the flood zone, instead of current state requirements of one foot. The ordinance has already been adopted by Saco, and is being considered for adoption by Scarborough.
“There’s a great deal of power in saying town X did this,” Lockman says.
Other coastal communities are starting to pay attention to SLAWG success, and Lockman and Slovinsky have been asked to make presentations in Ogunquit and York—and in other states. As a result, York is adding a chapter on sea level rise to its comprehensive plan, and Ogunquit is evaluating the location of a seaside sewage treatment plant.
“Everyone wants to try to do this in their community,” says Lockman. “It’s catching on.”
One of the keys to SLAWG’s success, Slovinsky says, is “the entire process has completely avoided the politics of climate change and has really empowered municipalities who are at ground zero of impacts of sea level rise.”
He adds, “They need to do something regardless of what’s happening at the state, federal, or international level. They’re already feeling the impacts of storm events, and they’re the ones that need to be working to adapt.”
For more information on the Saco Bay Sea Level Adaptation Working Group, you may contact Peter Slovinsky at (207) 287-7173 or Peter.A.Slovinsky@maine.gov, or Jonathan (J.T.) Lockman at jlockman@smrpc.org.
