Marshfield Coastal Adaptation Annotated Bibliography - Revision history

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‎Organizational Discussion

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‎Cultural Discussion

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‎Organizational Discussion

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typos

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big re-org to push most content to subpages

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Beginning to separate out main discussion onto separate pages.

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‎Town of Marshfield

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 == Organizational Discussion ==
-; [[Agencies and Organizations]]: Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The [[Agencies and Organizations]] page is a partial listing of some of the involved parties with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation. Understanding these relationships is helpful for understanding why certain adaptation strategies are or are not pursued as commonly as others, independant of the technical merits or costs of such measures.
+; [[Agencies and Organizations]]: Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The [[Agencies and Organizations]] page is a partial listing of the involved parties with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation. Understanding these relationships is helpful for understanding why certain adaptation strategies are or are not pursued as commonly as others, independant of the technical merits or costs of such measures.
 ; [[Planning]]: Understanding how to begin thinking about the challenges of coastal adaptation in a coherent and comprehenisve manner is itself a complex problem, but one that must be adressed in order for citizens and municipal leaders to make responsible fact-based decisions. Selected elements of the large literature on this subject are discussed on the [[Planning]] page, including the Marshfield Coastal Advisory Committee's own [[CAC Work Plan | work plan]].

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 ;[[Historical Marshfield]]: Understanding when and why Marshfield's citizens starting building homes in vulnerable coastal areas would help with two areas of relevance to coastal adaptation today:
 # decipher what the "natural" profile of Marshfield's coastal areas might look like without coastal protection structures and land development, and
-# bring some perspective in judging which adaptation strategies are "reasonable" in the big picture that extends beyond the limited scope of experience of today's residents.
+# bring some perspective in judging which adaptation strategies are "reasonable" in the big picture that extends beyond the limited (historically) scope of experience of today's residents.
 ;[[Marshfield Coastal Culture]]: Understanding the relationship between the people of Marshfield and its coastal environment --- including the commercial fishing fleet, the recreational and tourism uses of the coast and waterways, and the unquantifiable value of personal and neighborhood identities --- is essential in setting priorities for coastal adaptation strategies.
 == [[Flood Insurance | NFIP, FIRMs, FEMA, and all that]] ==
 Even though coastal adaptation planning focuses primarily on issues several years or decades into the community's future, vulnerable coastal communities are already threatened today in a variety of ways, including the high cost of mandatory flood insurance. Although the interplay of the National Flood Insurance Program with the local community is not strictly a coastal adaptation issue, we understand that some people may find themselves on this page when searching for such information. For that reason, a breif set of resources have been collected on the [[Flood Insurance]] page.

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 == Organizational Discussion ==
-; [[Agencies and Organizations]]:
+; [[Agencies and Organizations]]: Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The [[Agencies and Organizations]] page is a partial listing of some of the involved parties with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation. Understanding these relationships is helpful for understanding why certain adaptation strategies are or are not pursued as commonly as others, independant of the technical merits or costs of such measures.
 Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The [[Agencies and Organizations]] page is a partial listing of some of the involved parties with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation. Understanding these relationships is helpful for understanding why certain adaptation strategies are or are not pursued as commonly as others, independant of the technical merits or costs of such measures.
 ; [[Planning]]: Understanding how to begin thinking about the challenges of coastal adaptation in a coherent and comprehenisve manner is itself a complex problem, but one that must be adressed in order for citizens and municipal leaders to make responsible fact-based decisions. Selected elements of the large literature on this subject are discussed on the [[Planning]] page, including the Marshfield Coastal Advisory Committee's own [[CAC Work Plan | work plan]].

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 '''''This website is still in active development.'''''
-This website is an annotated bibliography for tracking interesting research articles, news coverage, references, and online resources relevant to issues of climate change adaptation in the coastal community of Marshfield, Massahcusettes, USA. Much of it will likely be useful for other communities in a similar situation.
+This website is an annotated bibliography for tracking interesting research articles, news coverage, references, and online resources relevant to issues of climate change adaptation in the coastal community of Marshfield, Massahcusettes (USA). Much of it will likely be useful for other communities in a similar situation.
 The information here has been gathered and edited by the members of the Town of Marshfield's Coastal Advisory Committee, which reports to the Town's Board of Selectmen. The site is hosted by committee member Dr. Sean P. Robinson, with thanks to the Helena Foundation Junior Physics Laboratory in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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 == Technical Discussion ==
 ;[[Adaptation Strategies]]:
-;[[Climate Change Science]]:One of the principle drivers (but not the only one) of the need for adaptation measures in coastal communities is climate change. Therefore, a solid grasp of the present scientific understanding and explanation of climate change is necessary for making educated judgments about coastal adaptation. The [[Climate Change Science]] page will attempt to briefly summarize this understanding.
+;[[Climate Change]]: One of the principle drivers (but not the only one) of the need for adaptation measures in coastal communities is climate change. Therefore, a solid grasp of the present scientific understanding and explanation of climate change is necessary for making educated judgments about coastal adaptation. The [[Climate Change]] science page will attempt to briefly summarize this understanding.
 ; [[GIS Resources]]: Geographical Information Systems, or GIS, is a set of technological tools for placing data layers on maps. Basic skills in and access to GIS tools are essential to any research-based approach to coastal adaptation. The [[GIS Resources]] page includes a set of links which may help people get started in casual GIS usage. (Professional level applications of GIS often require expertise derived from extensive training and fairly powerful computers running expensive, specialized software.)

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 This bibliography represents a partial response to those line items in the Committee's mission statement which pertain to educating the public on the complicated issues of climate change and adaptation. It also summarizes the Committee members' efforts to advance their own knowledge of adaptation strategies to sea level rise and related climate change phenomena in coastal communities like Marshfield. A larger view of the Commitee's work is summarized in its [[CAC Work Plan | work plan]].
-This website wil continue to be updated.
+This website will continue to be updated.
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 ; [[Agencies and Organizations]]:
 Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The [[Agencies and Organizations]] page is a partial listing of some of the involved parties with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation. Understanding these relationships is helpful for understanding why certain adaptation strategies are or are not pursued as commonly as others, independant of the technical merits or costs of such measures.
-; [Planning]]: Understanding how to begin thinking about the challenges of coastal adaptation in a coherent and comprehenisve manner is itself a complex problem, but one that must be adressed in order for citizens and municipal leaders to make responsible fact-based decisions. Selected elements of the large literature on this subject are discussed on the [[Planning]] page, including the Marshfield Coastal Advisory Committee's own [[CAC Work Plan | work plan]].
+; [[Planning]]: Understanding how to begin thinking about the challenges of coastal adaptation in a coherent and comprehenisve manner is itself a complex problem, but one that must be adressed in order for citizens and municipal leaders to make responsible fact-based decisions. Selected elements of the large literature on this subject are discussed on the [[Planning]] page, including the Marshfield Coastal Advisory Committee's own [[CAC Work Plan | work plan]].
 == Technical Discussion ==

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-== Agencies and Organizations ==
+== [[Agencies and Organizations]] ==
 Management of coastal risks involves a complex set of public agencies and private partners. The following is a partial list of some of the involved parties. In the future, this list will be expanded with commentary on the roles of each of these bodies and how they relate to each other in regards to managing coastal adaptation.
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 * Union of Concerned Scientists [http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/northeast-climate-impacts.html Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment] (2007)
-== GIS Resources ==
+== Technical Discussion ==
 Geographical Information Systems, or GIS, is a set of technological tools for placing data layers on maps. Basic skills in and access to GIS tools are essential to any research-based approach to coastal adaptation. The following set of links may help people get a start in casual GIS usage, although professional level applications of GIS often require expertise derived from extensive training and fairly powerful computers running expensive, specialized software.
 *[http://fctpermit.com/gis/marshfield/index.asp Marshfield Online GIS]
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 **[http://web-facstaff.sas.upenn.edu/~dromano/classes/gis/files/Getting_Started_with_ArcGIS.pdf Getting Started with ArcGIS]
-== Climate Change and Adaptation ==
+== [[Adaptation Strategies]] ==
 One of the principle drivers (but not the only one) of the need for adaptation measures in coastal communities is climate change. Therefore, a solid grasp of the scientific understanding and explanation of climate change is necessary for making educated judgments about coastal adaptation. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the information most readily available to the public on this subject is of a quality that ranges from unusably oversimplified to outright bogus, although the communication skill of the media outlets or political pundits reporting the information may give it the illusion of reliability. Much of this media reporting also couches the reporting of climate change science within a political "pro versus con" narrative which is absent in the science itself, but presumably makes the story more entertaining for its readers. (Incidentally, media reports of both the "pro" and "con" variety are equally subject to the lack of reliability cited above.) The Coastal Advisory Committee hopes to be able to sort through and present some of the available content on climate change and adaptation measures which is reliable, accessible, and relevant for residents of coastal communities like Marshfield. At present, this content is just the loosely organized set of references below, but should be refined and expanded with explanatory language as time goes on.
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 * [http://www.pacificlegal.org/PLF-client-Vicki-Luhrs-wins-the-right-to-save-her-home-from-erosion ''Luhrs v. Whatcom County''] (March 2011) Press release from the Pacific Legal Foundation regarding a 2011 Washington State legal case where an individual homeowner successfully fought for the legal ability to build a stone revetment to secure the eroding coastal bluff at property edge, against the wishes of the county permitting bodies. Legal argument based on Washington State Constitution and statute.
-== Historical Marshfield ==
+== [[Historical Marshfield]] ==
 It seems that people have not always built their homes in the vulnerable coastal areas of Marshfield. It's a relatively recent thing, where "recent" is less than about 150 years. But, exactly when and why did this start? Understanding the answer to this question would help with two areas of relevance to coastal adaptation today:
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 * [http://www.hazegray.org/features/1898gale/gale10.jpg Image of the shipwreck Mertis H. Perry] after the Portland Gale, near Brant Rock.
-== NFIP, FIRMs, FEMA, and all that ==
+== [[Flood Insurance | NFIP, FIRMs, FEMA, and all that]] ==
 Coastal adaptation planning focuses primarily on issues several years or decades into the community's future. However, vulnerable coastal communities are already threatened today in a variety of ways. Managing the complex physical challenges of climate change requires that it be understood together with a similarly complex web of economic pressures and governmental regulations from the local to federal level. One example of this is the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The affordability or otherwise of flood insurance for homes and business in flood-prone areas can have a major effect on determining what type of community can be sustained in those areas. As such, a topical understanding of NFIP is important for coastal adaptation planners. Resources to aid that understanding are documented here. On the other hand, the management of municipal NFIP procedures for a particular mapping cycle, such as FIRM appeals or CRS certification, while critical to the immediate needs of coastal communities, is not itself part of long-term adaptation planning. Timely response to these immediate needs should be addressed through a separate dedicated effort. In Marshfield, NFIP response is handled by the central administration in Town Hall, notably aided by the commendable efforts of the [http://www.marshfieldcoastalcoalition.org Marshfield Citizens Coastal Coalition] citizen advocacy group.
 === General NFIP resources ===
+* Until such time as a listing of references for helping understand NFIP is developed in this space, the
 === 2013 Mapping Cycle ===

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 === Government ===
 ==== Town of Marshfield ====
-* Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator
+* [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-selectmen.htm Board of Selectmen] and [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-departments-administration-home.htm Town Administrator]
-** Coastal Advisory Committee. See [[CAC Work Plan]].
+** [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-coastadv-homepage.htm Coastal Advisory Committee]. See [[CAC Work Plan]].
-** Waterways Committee
+** [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-waterways.htm Waterways Committee]
 ** [http://marshfieldenergy.org/ Energy Committee]
 *[http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-planning-board.htm Planning Board], [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-departments-planning-home.htm Planning Department, and Town Planner]
-* Board of Public Works, Department of Public Works
+* [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-public-works.htm Board of Public Works], [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-departments-public-works.htm Department of Public Works, and DPW Superintendent]
 * [http://www.townofmarshfield.org/government-boards-conservation-commission.htm Conservation Commission and Conservation Agent]
 ==== Regional (South Shore or Plymouth County) ====