Interactive Maps Intended To Prompt Feedback On Climate Resiliency In Woods Hole
Resilient Woods Hole, a public-private climate initiative run by three of the scientific institutions in Woods Hole, has released new interactive maps aimed at educating the community on projected climate impacts in the village and collecting feedback on adaptation strategies.
The interactive maps give community members an in-depth look at the key features of Woods Hole and their susceptibility to climate impacts like sea-level rise and storm surge, and prompt users to leave comments with their own input, experience and ideas for adaptation.
“I think the big takeaway is that this project is so collaborative,” said Suzanne Pelisson, associate director of public relations for WHOI. “It’s just so important, we couldn’t do it without getting all of this feedback from the community so this is a way for them to be a part of it, it’s a way to get all of the information, hopefully, funneled into one area that then our engineers and those guys can really take a look at all of the feedback that we’re getting.”
Resilient Woods Hole is collaboratively run by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratory, and NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and works closely with the Woods Hole Group and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. Now entering phase three of a multiphase climate-resilient adaptation strategy, Resilient Woods Hole is looking to engage the community in a discussion of risk areas, impacts and desired outcomes to determine the adaptation strategies that would best fit the community’s needs.
Some 130 people signed up for the organization’s community workshop on February 9, when the initiative rolled out its three new interactive map tools, each of which is focused on a different aspect of projected impacts and adaptation areas. The maps were designed to collect feedback, and users are encouraged to leave comments and ideas that will be taken into consideration in determining the best adaptation strategies. The group also designed a more-traditional survey—available on its website—for those who prefer to provide feedback in a more narrative-driven way.
Joseph Famely, an environmental scientist with the Woods Hole Group, joined The Enterprise on Zoom for a walkthrough of the interactive maps and their key features.
“We rereleased this Resilient Woods Hole website to basically be a base of information for people throughout this project,” he said. “It has all of the backup information: where the project came from, where we’re going, recordings of prior events that had to do with previous versions of the project…there’s the summary of past work and the other reports from prior phases, and really what we’re working with right now is getting the community and stakeholders’ feedback.”
The interactive maps are a culmination of the previous two phases of the project, which included a vulnerability assessment of the three institutional assets followed by a more-general assessment of vulnerable community assets and features according to projected impacts as modeled by the Woods Hole Group for the state’s climate change planning programs. The interactive feedback tool, Mr. Famely said, allows the group to hone in on specific items it needs to focus on for adaptation in a more spatial way than the average survey.
On all three maps, users can explore the village and its infrastructure, view different base maps and leave comments. Directions on the purpose of the map and how to use it appear in a window on the left, and the legend, edit tool and layer map are on the right.
The first interactive tool maps tout Woods Hole’s important features and marks the locations of different categories of infrastructure including types of buildings, coastal infrastructure, wetlands, natural resources, open space and sewer lift stations.
Using the edit tool, which adds an orange circle to the map, users can add additional features of the village that they feel are key to its function and character, whether it be a place, an event or an object. To edit a map and leave a comment, users can select the edit tool and click on the area of interest, which will prompt them with applicable questions to identify whatever key feature they are highlighting.
“That helps us hone in on the specific things we need to focus on for adaptation in a more spatial way than we can with just asking questions,” Mr. Famely said. “The other advantage is it allows stakeholders to really explore at whatever level they care about. The first thing anybody does with any map, especially with sea-level rise and storms, is zoom into their home and their area.”
The second map takes a look at the community’s experience with flooding in Woods Hole. Using the layer list, users can overlay different maps that show projected impacts of flooding to infrastructure in 2030, 2050 and 2070 according to the state’s models. The map shows the probability of flooding over time and maps out the vulnerability of the village's roadways and structures to sea-level rise and storm surge. With the various icons and tools, users can select from an array of projected map models to see firsthand what the impacts of climate change could look like.
The third map is called the "adaptation and vision map" and is intended for users to leave comments regarding desired future visions for the village and potential responses to flooding.
“We have a couple of different data sets on wetlands change, the inundation probability, the depth of flooding at a 1 percent chance [a 100-year storm] event, the mean high water, and then you can leave comments on either what you want to do about flooding…or the other thing we’re interested in is ways we can pair adaptation strategies over time to other public amenities, things that would benefit the village,” Mr. Famely said.
Mr. Famely explained that the map will largely be used to look for synergy between what community members want to see in the village and adaptation strategies for climate change. For example, he said, if people want to see more open space in the village, they would take that into consideration and would perhaps design a resilient waterfront park that satisfies the community’s desire for open space while also providing protection from climate impacts.
“I’ve been working with WHOI, NOAA and MBL for a few years on this now,” Mr. Famely said. “From the very beginning, the message that I’ve heard is that we can do everything that we can about our own assets but it doesn't matter if we don’t have the community and the town and businesses and all those other things that make Woods Hole work as it is. So [what] this is really about [is] we’ve started looking internally, now let’s bring everybody in and figure out how we can all go forward together.”
Diana Kenney, associate director of communications at MBL, said MBL set a deadline of March 13 for community input on the interactive maps. This allows the organization and its engineers to digest the feedback that has been provided and give them enough time to incorporate it into what they call "dynamic adaptation pathways."
“There may be some approach that the community would like to see over time and it makes sense to apply [it], and then there may be some transfer point where we want to adopt a different strategy,” Mr. Famely said. “So we’re looking for that feedback so we can figure out what the world of possibilities are and then try to weave that all together and come back with some ideas for another round of input.”
The interactive maps can be found at www.resilientwoodshole.org under the "Get Involved" tab. The survey is also available online, and paper copies of the maps are available at the Woods Hole Public Library as of March 2. Anyone with questions is encouraged to contact Resilient Woods Hole through its website.