Waterfront Alliance released a groundbreaking white paper on climate resilience along coastlines, addressing Harlem‘s Dr. Falkowski’s warning years ago.
The paper pinpointed the key policy challenges, considerations, and opportunities for effectively funding and implementing climate-resilient infrastructure and other solutions in the U.S.
“The complexity of the climate crisis comes into view the more change accelerates across landscapes each year. At the Waterfront Alliance we are dedicated to bringing solutions and clarity, with a focus on finance, to communities at the water’s edge across the country,” said Cortney Koenig Worrall, President, Waterfront Alliance. “It is exciting to bring the best in thinking to the policy, funding, and advocacy of Aspen Ideas and to the communities that need it the most.”
Among the Aspen Ideas Conference 2024 White Paper on Coastal Adaptation & Resilience key highlights are:
- Design: Tie climate goals and nature-based features to other community goals.
- Community Engagement: Interactions with the community should be two-way discussions—sharing climate education while seeking hyper-local expertise.
- Funding and Finance: Incentivize solutions and get funding where it is needed and at a pace commensurate with the reality at hand.
Developed through the innovative March 2024 Aspen Ideas Climate Summit by scientists, engineers, design and construction professionals, financial institutions and asset owners, philanthropists, and others, the paper uncovers the viability of solutions to mitigate, manage, and reverse climate-related harms for coastal communities.
By focusing on solutions, the paper reframes climate challenges into more practical and tangible steps to build resilience within assets as well as communities with a commitment to the critical relationship between built and natural environments.
“The Waterfront Alliance’s strength in convening and providing tools, including the WEDG® (Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines) verification program, to decision-makers and experts in waterfront and coastal design cannot be overstated,” said Eugene Montoya, Founder and President, Sandmont Natural Capital. “Leveraging private sector finance with tools and expertise points to a critical path for solving some of the greatest resilience challenges we face.”
Sea level rise, heat stress, extreme weather, and flooding pose growing threats to all places where water meets land. These are locations where built and natural environments intersect more starkly than anywhere else.
Building, rebuilding, operating, and sustaining living and working waterfronts, coastlines, and riverfronts is a shared challenge facing a multitude of communities in the United States. As Waterfront Alliance illuminates through this paper, flipping the script from risk to opportunity requires adaptive thinking, design innovation, and systemic solutions at the water’s edge.
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