This webinar is brought to you by the Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) Tools Network and OpenChannels.org. It originally aired on Thursday, Juy 25, 2013.
Many communities are ready to take action to adapt to changing conditions, but may be unsure which actions are good investments. Recent software enhancements in the Coastal Adaptation to Sea level rise Tool (COAST) help predict and visualize damages from ranges of sea level rise and storm surge frequency and intensity and the relative benefits of candidate adaptation responses. COAST output is in the form of Google Earth-compatible files and tables showing costs versus benefits (avoided costs) of stakeholder-derived adaptation scenarios. These outputs have proven effective in helping communities generate policy and finance innovations necessary for a robust response to the combined threats of sea level rise and storm surge. The webinar will explore new capabilities of the tool and provide an array of recent case studies and other software enhancements underway. The free software is available online, along with a user’s manual and tutorial data sets, at http://efc.muskie.usm.maine.edu/pages/coast.html.