Preparation rising with the seas

Old Lyme - Knowing that the future holds rising sea levels and more frequent and intense storms, shoreline towns are being urged to begin making changes in land use policies in coastal areas now, taking an incremental approach to climate change adaptation rather than waiting until a crisis.

"You don't have to do everything at once," David Major of Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research and senior research scientist, economist and planner said Thursday to an audience of shoreline town officials.

Major was one of five speakers at a workshop at town hall on "coastal resilience" sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, SeaGrant Connecticut and CLEAR, the Center for Land Use Education and Research at the University of Connecticut.

The purpose of the session was to introduce local officials to a new web-based planning tool being developed by the conservancy that will show specific areas that will be affected most by rising seas and storms, and get them thinking about actions to take in anticipation.

According to forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, seas will be seven to 23 inches higher by the end of this century, Major said. Some projections that predict greater melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets show a 54-inch rise, he added.

The web tool, www.coastalresilience.org, now shows vulnerable areas on parts of Long Island, but by January will include coastal Connecticut. Once complete, Connecticut coastal towns will be able to use it to make informed decisions about roads and bridges, building codes, where people are allowed to build or rebuild and which marshes should be protected to serve as buffers from flooding, among other uses, conservancy officials said. Conservancy representatives have been meeting with shoreline towns for several months about the need to begin climate change adaptation, said Adam Whelchel, director of conservation programs for the organization.

"We're hoping to continue the dialogue throughout the summer," he said.

Several town officials said they were concerned that the maps being created for the website would show some of the most valuable properties that produce the most tax revenue were also in the most vulnerable areas, and that real estate values would be affected.

"Is this going to create a backlash?" Nathan Frohling, lower Connecticut River program director for the Conservancy, asked the town officials rhetorically. "We'll need to plan how to present this."

j.benson@theday.com