Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Pursuing Resilience Of Coastal Communities Through Sustainable And Integrated Urban Water Management, Pacia Díaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reliability of water supply in the urban setting has become essential for communities to function and thrive. It is needed for more than mere human consumption and well-being. Although modern cities have water treatment and distribution systems, pressures from urbanization, population growth and the anticipated pressures of climate change are affecting the quality of water supply and the reliability of treatment and distribution systems. There is therefore an urgent need to take appropriate measures to improve the resilience of water supply systems before the impacts are irreversible.

Improving the resilience of water supply systems can be a challenge. In the …

The 'New Normal' Of Flooding In Portsmouth, Virginia: Perspectives, Experiences, And Adaptive Responses Of Residents And Business Owners In Low To Moderate-Income Communities, Donta Council, Michelle Covi, Wie Yusuf, Joshua Behr, Makayla Brown, Old Dominion University Resilience Collaborative, Virginia Sea Grant

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[First three paragraphs from the Summary]

This project is a part of a broader initiative - the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) - that addresses the daunting challenges coastal communities are facing related to sea level rise and climate change (more information about RAFT is available here: https://ien.virginia.edu/raft).

This aim of this project was to investigate how residents and business owners in low-to-moderate income communities in Portsmouth, Virginia cope with flooding, and to assess implications for how the local government can better engage with residents to better meet their information needs so they can be more resilient to flooding. The …

Governance For A Changing Climate: Adapting Boston’S Built Environment For Increased Flooding, Stephanie Kruel, Rebecca Herst, David Cash

School for the Environment Publications

Climate Change is impacting everything in our society and in our world. The changes we are already experiencing are starting to multiply and accelerate. Determining how to respond to this new reality wisely within the governance and governmental structures that we have built is a complex challenge. Some might argue it is humankind’s greatest test. Given the monumental size of this task, it is difficult to simultaneously address all of the related issues both broadly and deeply. This is the third and final in a series of reports from the Sustainable Solutions Lab that were sponsored by the Boston Green …

Flood Resilience Community Outreach Using The Asert Framework, Michelle Covi, Wie Yusuf, Carol Considine, Gail Nicula, Afi Anuar, Makayla Brown

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

Report on a program for public engagement meetings using the ASERT (Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow) framework to solicit resident input into the City of Virginia Beach’s Comprehensive Sea Level Rise and Recurrent Flooding Analysis and Planning Study. A series of community meetings from December 2017-January 2018 took the form of a “Flood Resilience Game Night” with five stations in which residents could participate in activities to earn stamps on a game card.

Assessing Land Deformation And Sea Encroachment In The Nile Delta, Egypt, Esayas Gebremichael

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Persistent scatterer interferometric analyses were conducted on a stack of 84 Envisat ASAR scenes spanning 7 years (2004 to 2010) over the entire Nile Delta of Egypt and surroundings to monitor the ongoing spatial and temporal land deformation, identify the factors controlling the deformation, and model the interplay between sea level rise and land subsidence to identify areas and populations threatened by sea encroachment by the end of the 21st century. Findings include: (1) general patterns of subsidence in the northern delta, near-steady (none) subsidence in the southern delta, separated by a previously mapped flexure zone undergoing uplift; (2) high …

Throw Me A Lifeline: A Comparison Of Port Cities With Antithetical Adaptation Strategies To Sea-Level Rise, Claudia Marie Risner

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Sea-level rise (SLR) is a manifestation of climate change that is particularly hazardous to port cities that must remain on the waterfront to function, yet are increasingly battered and flooded by encroaching storms, and sinking into the rising saltwater. Despite sharing a common high level of risk, port cities are choosing antithetical adaptation strategies that range from hard-engineered structural flood protection, to behavioral modifications, to innovative soft-engineered measures, to doing nothing at all. Why is this? Are transnational city networks, such as C40 Cities, a lifeline to drowning cities? Do differences in governance structure, financial capacity, risk tolerance to the …

The Impact Of Salinity On Mycorrhizal Colonization Of A Rare Legume, Galactia Smallii, In South Florida Pine Rocklands, Klara Scharnagl, Vanessa Sanchez, Eric Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives: The success of restoration plantings depends on the capacity of transplanted individuals or seeds to establish and reproduce. It is increasingly recognized that restoration success depends quite heavily upon biotic interactions and belowground processes. Under stressful abiotic conditions, such as soils salinized by storm surge and sea level rise, symbiotic interactions with soil microbes such as mycorrhizae may be critically important. In this study, we investigate the impact of salinity on percent colonization of roots by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, in addition to the impacts of this colonization on plant fitness under saline conditions. Fifty Galactia smallii plants from an …

An Intergovernmental Blueprint For Community Resiliency: The Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness And Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project, Ray Toll

ODU Articles

This special Marine Technology Society (MTS) Journal issue on resilience features authors presenting various perspectives on the challenges and solutions that we all must face. Many of these perspectives are a follow-up to the recommendations from a 2014–2016 pilot run by Old Dominion University (ODU) that used a whole-of-government/community approach to an integrated regional solution in Hampton Roads. An intergovernmental blueprint for community resiliency, The Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project (convened by ODU and launched in June 2014 with MTS), was one of the three White House National Security Council pilots and one of …

Institutionalizing Resilience In Us Universities: Prospects, Opportunities, And Models, Morris Foster, James O'Donnell, Mark Luckenbach, Elizabeth Andrews, Emily Steinhilber, John Wells, Mark Davis

ODU Articles

[From Introduction]

The United States is taking a largely region-specific approach to addressing challenges posed by climate change, in contrast with national and international approaches in most of the rest of the world. In locations such as Hampton Roads, New Orleans, and coastal Connecticut, the impacts of climate change tend to be addressed as they become locally evident rather than as part of a larger anticipatory national plan. Given that regional focus, universities can play a unique role in how the United States responds to the challenges of a changing climate. Universities can be knowledge brokers positioned outside or across …

Key Priorities And University Roles To Address Coastal Resilience In Virginia: Findings From The Rotating Resilience Roundtables Workshop Fall 2018, Anamaria Bukvic, Michelle Covi

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

From Part 1. Purpose and significance

The first Rotating Resilience Roundtables event took place on October 11 and 12, 2018 on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg and was co-organized between the Coastal@VT initiative at Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University/Virginia Sea Grant Climate Adaptation and Resilience Program. It was designed to respond to the need for a cohesive and policy-relevant science that will align and coordinate efforts between researchers and other stakeholders to benefit the Commonwealth’s resilience planning for changing conditions in coastal zone. The Rotating Roundtables’ concept was selected to facilitate active engagement of audiences with different coastal …

Urban Areas In Coastal Zones, Richard C. Dawson, M. Shah Alam Khan, Vivien Gornitz, Maria Fernanda Lemos, Larry Atkinson, Julie Pullen, Juan Camilo Osorio, Lindsay Usher, Cynthia Rosenzweig (Ed.), William Solecki (Ed.), Patricia Romero-Lankao (Ed.), Shagun Mehrotra (Ed.), Shobhakar Dhakal (Ed.), Somayya Ali Ibrahim (Ed.)

CCPO Publications

[First Paragraph] Coastal cities have been subjected to extreme weather events since the onset of urbanization. Climatic change, in particular sea level rise, coupled with rapid urban development are amplifying the challenge of managing risks to coastal cities. Moreover, urban expansion and changes and intensification in land use further pressure sensitive coastal environments through pollution and habitat loss.