UMaine expanding support for climate action and resilience throughout Maine coast – S. Jain, I. Fernandez

From the piers in Casco Bay to the marinas of the midcoast and wharves along Downeast shorelines, working waterfronts are crucial to Maine’s economy and communities. Faced with the threat of rising sea levels, stronger and more frequent storms, aging infrastructure and development pressures, Gov. Janet Mills and her administration have developed strategies and nature-based solutions, supported by the scientific expertise of the University of Maine, to bolster coastal resilience to climate change and preserve Maine’s working waterfronts and citizens’ access to them for years to come.

To support these efforts and others outlined in the state’s “Maine Won’t Wait” Climate Action Plan, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded a $69 million grant to the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future through the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s the largest grant the state has ever received to address climate change. The overall funding includes $3 million directed to UMaine. The award will allow Maine Sea Grant — UMaine’s boots-on-the-ground on the coast — to work with communities, state agencies and other partners along with engineering faculty to provide scientific and technical expertise to identify coastal hazards, including future sea level rise and storm surges, as well as compound and cascading weather-climate extreme events. It will work with communities to understand and reduce human and infrastructure risk by exploring innovative and nature-based engineering alternatives. Maine Sea Grant will also work with the Maine Coastal Program to support strengthening Maine’s Working Waterfront Coalition and developing a statewide working waterfront strategy. 

The UMaine-led work will include partnering with communities to determine their needs and connect them with science and engineering tools that can help them achieve their desired climate resilience solutions. University researchers will also host educational workshops and collaborate on existing and emerging initiatives with various partners, including the Maine Climate Council, state and federal agencies, municipalities, other research institutions, regional planning organizations, industry support groups and businesses. 

Maine Sea Grant will hire two extension specialists for these projects, one who will specialize in working waterfronts and another who will focus on coastal hazards and tools used to assess local risks. They will be assisted by current UMaine faculty and Ph.D. students. Their collective work will help bolster the state’s climate-ready workforce and build on the work of UMaine’s Marine Aligned Research, Innovation, and Nationally-recognized Education (MARINE) initiative, which creates transformative solutions that improve the quality of life social and economic well-being of the people of Maine and beyond through transdisciplinary research, education and strategic partnerships.

The working waterfront specialist will work closely with the Maine Coastal Program and Maine’s Working Waterfront Coalition to continue building a statewide inventory of at-risk or abandoned public and private waterfront properties; and provide technical assistance for private working waterfront properties to support private infrastructure that provides a public good. The specialist will also work closely with the Maine Working Waterfront Coalition and other local and state partners to host workshops and offer technical assistance to municipalities and private landowners seeking to identify zoning regulations, tools, funding mechanisms and other strategies for preserving their waterfronts. 

“This investment in Maine could not be more timely, as communities continue to recover from the winter storms. We are working with our partners to collectively implement the recommendations of the ‘Maine Won’t Wait’ Climate Action Plan to create a more resilient Maine. Maine Sea Grant is honored that Governor Mills’ Office of Policy Innovation and the Future has engaged us in this imperative work” said Gayle Zydlewski, Maine Sea Grant Director and UMaine lead for this new initiative.

The coastal hazard specialist with Maine Sea Grant will collaborate with state agencies and communities to apply coastal flood risk models, which will provide dynamic and high-resolution forecasts of flood risk due to sea level rise and storms for coastal properties and assets statewide. They also will work with communities to identify appropriate tools for applying such models in their communities as a resource to protect their waterfronts. The work will be supported by the Maine Geological Survey and faculty from UMaine’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

“UMaine civil and environmental engineering faculty look forward to collaborating with project partners and coastal communities. The model data and observations will be integral to infrastructure-related risk assessment and inform planning and decision-making efforts,” said Shaleen Jain, UMaine project colead, professor and chair of its Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and cooperating professor at the Climate Change Institute.

This funding will also support a marine and coastal community specialist position in the Maine Climate and Science Information Exchange (MCSIE) at UMaine, which supports the implementation of the “Maine Won’t Wait” climate action plan. The specialist will lead MCSIE’s work as a boundary spanning organization facilitating coordination between researchers, state agencies, nongovernmental organizations, businesses and municipalities. Their work will include hosting workshops and other gatherings to enhance information sharing and outcomes. Workshops will offer, among other things, local risk reduction research that can be applied at the community level. 

The specialist will also create a climate preparedness training program and micro-credential for students throughout the University of Maine System. Additionally, they will aid other scientists in report writing and assist municipalities with their waterfront preservation projects, particularly through the creation of a communications platform detailing grant opportunities and other resources. 

“This funding represents a critical investment in Maine’s progress toward utilizing the best available science to inform urgent, cost-effective climate adaptation and risk reduction across Maine’s coastal communities and marine economy,” said Ivan Fernandez, UMaine project colead, director of the Maine Climate Science Information Exchange and professor emeritus with the School of Forest Resources and Climate Change Institute.

These projects are among many being conducted at the University of Maine, the state’s Land and Sea Grant University and its only one to achieve the top-tier R1 Carnegie Classification, to help protect working waterfronts, support climate mitigation strategies, bolster its blue economy and strengthen its maritime workforce. This includes researchers such as Fernandez and Zydlewski helping inform and craft the “Maine Won’t Wait” Climate Action Plan with government officials, scientists, business and industry leaders, and citizens. Experts from the University of Maine at Machias, the University of Maine School of Law, the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Farmington also support the development of the plan.   

Learn more about these and other statewide initiatives on Gov. Mills’ website.