Paul Ryan, the Perfect Anti-Gore
Global Warming on Free Republic
Posted on 08/21/2012 12:23:14 PM PDT by mbarker12474
U.Va. Institute Assists Citizens with Sea-Level Rise Issues on Virginia's Coast
August 20, 2012 — Virginia's largest city may get up to 45,000 acres smaller over the next century, due to an anticipated 2.3 to 5.2 feet of relative sea-level rise expected in Virginia Beach – a rise that would also impact the entire Hampton Roads region and the Eastern Shore.
Recognizing the challenges this will pose, the University of Virginia's Institute for Environmental Negotiation is assisting citizens and decision-makers in long-range planning.
Under director Frank Dukes, associate director Tanya Denckla Cobb and graduate associate Melissa Keywood – all from U.Va.'s School of Architecture – the institute is working to develop awareness of, and strategies to face, rising sea levels.
Beginning in March 2011, the institute established partnerships with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, Wetlands Watch and the city of Virginia Beach to host four listening sessions for Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore citizens to share their experiences of sea-level rise and ideas for confronting it.
Following these gatherings, the institute has been working with its partners to synthesize its findings and develop recommendations for action. Later this week, it will release a report on a May 9 session in Virginia Beach, at which the institute facilitated a meeting of a diverse group of 15 regional stakeholders. There, the project partners sorted through 56 potential policies and chose the five most important, and relevant, policy categories for Virginia Beach, discussing in detail the costs and benefits of each category.
These included preparing educational materials, tools and online programs; the use of transfer or purchase of development rights; reasonable restrictions and rolling easements; special tax districts for improvements; and updating the zoning code to prepare buildings in vulnerable areas.
"I feel strongly that planners need to play a pivotal role in helping communities prepare for these difficult challenges. However, this is not an issue we can address with traditional planning tools, like zoning, alone," said Keywood, who developed the coastal listening sessions (for which she earned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Walter B. Jones Award for Excellence in Coastal and Ocean Management in June).
Nearly 200 citizens and elected officials turned out June 13 for a Coastal Flooding Workshop in Melfa on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Denckla Cobb, the project coordinator, said the turnout was "record-breaking," and remarked on participants' enthusiasm and desire for local government to boost its involvement in education and outreach regarding rising sea levels – a sentiment also heard in Virginia Beach.
A vast majority of the Melfa participants said they had noticed changes in wetlands and beaches, she said. "They know that rising sea levels are having real impacts, such as causing more frequent flooding during storm events. It's also clear that people want more information, not just about what's happening and why, but also about specific ways communities can prepare for sea-level rise."
"It was clear that people were very interested in catalyzing action to implement new policies to address this concern," said Keywood, a graduate of the Architecture School's master's program in urban and environmental planning.
According to a survey taken in Virginia Beach, people considered themselves fairly knowledgeable about sea-level rise and its potential consequences, ranging from wildlife habitat concerns to potential road blockages.
"Participants in our workshops are very in tune with their local environments and are acutely aware of the changes they've observed over time in regards to habitat loss, shoreline erosion, business loss and others," Keywood said.
Nevertheless, Denckla Cobb saw that many were less aware of strategies and tools they could implement on an individual or local level – reinforcing the need for the institute to play a role in facilitating the development of practical solutions.
Sea-level rise is a "multifaceted issue for which there are not a lot of practical, usable tools, unless political will changes," she said, adding, "There is a difference between knowing what is needed and getting it done."
In addition to the efforts of the institute, Virginia Sea Grant has funded graduate student fieldwork in Hampton Roads as part of architecture professor Timothy Beatley's "Climate Change and Coastal Planning" course. Its final report focuses on adaptation and accommodation as ways to mitigate sea-level rise, specifically through strategies of land use and growth management, resilience and knowledge dissemination.
Since 1980, the Institute for Environmental Negotiation has worked throughout Virginia to mediate natural and man-made environmental issues, such as remediating coal mines, revitalizing tobacco farms and mitigating sea-level changes. For more on its Community Resilience in Coastal Virginia initiative, including the new focus group reports, visit its website.
– by Preston Pezzaro
Note the existence of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation.
IEN - University of Virginia ien.arch.virginia.edu/
Let them and Governor McDonnell know how delighted you are that the IEN is sucking up Virginia public dollars, for their important work not only on sea-level mitigation efforts (!!!) but also on the fashionalbe issues of "racial reconciliation" and "environmental justice."
Since 1980, the Institute for Environmental Negotiation has worked throughout Virginia to mediate natural and man-made environmental issues, such as remediating coal mines, revitalizing tobacco farms and mitigating sea-level changes. For more on its Community Resilience in Coastal Virginia initiative, including the new focus group reports, visit its website.How much mitigation has been done over the past 30+ years? What exactly have they done to mitigate it? How much has the sea level risen?
If they're talking about a two to five foot rise over the next hundred years, they must have been doing something about the rise that's occurred during the previous thirty years.
Damn good question!
I always find it iteresting that universities publish this “stuff” online with no opportunity for an online reesponse....
I thought when Baraq took office, all this stuff stopped happening.....???
I live in coastal Virginia and I can tell you with 100% certainty the sal level has not changed in 35 years. Now the city of Norfolk was built on a swamp and the land itself is sinking in relation to the sea level, but the sea level has not moved,
“I live in coastal Virginia and I can tell you with 100% certainty the sal level has not changed in 35 years...”
That’s no way to start another successful taxpayer scam!!!
VA Ping!
If you want on/off the VA Ping List, please freepmail me. Thanks!
The Eastern Shore is subsiding...look at it through Google Earth or a map....
Well, I consider them morons brainwashed by other morons.
Thanks for the ping, randita.
I’ll insert a personal note germane to the topic.
I fear for the rare Spanish Moss growing in First Landing State Park in trees that are barely above sea level. In 1997 I made a survey and determined that the northern most habitat for Spanish Moss, the bromeliad Tillandsia usneoides, was in First landing State Park. The northern most growth of this ubiquitous plant is a few hundred yards from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Any appreciable rise in sea level will kill the deciduous trees in which the most successful plant in existence resides. Success is measured by range that extends from Virginia continuous to southern Argentina, the longest range of any plant species. A rise in sea level will likely move the northern most point southward all the way to South Carolina.
The specimens I collected reside in the Smithsonian.
I was at the beach, and built a sand castle. Then the sea rose 5 feet, and wiped it out.
If only these people had been there, they could have formed a human shield and protected my castle.
None. The MEASUREMENTS of sea levels show zero rise. The hysteria is all about model-based predictions of "expected" increases due to "expected" warming.....also completely based on math models. MEASUREMENTS of global temperature reveal NO increase in temperatures over the last 15 years (temps "had" been rising prior to that time). This departure from "modeled" behavior is one of the "dirty little secrets" of the warmists.
Paul Ryan, the Perfect Anti-Gore
Global Warming on Free Republic
This is the same outfit that refuses to release the Michael Mann research data. Why should anyone believe them?
Thanks for the ping....the propaganda continues.
Claim That Sea Level Is Rising Is a Total Fraud
Sea levels began to rise 18k years ago at the end of the last glacial period. They have risen about 135 meters since then which is an average of 7.5 millimeters per year. That is an average of 750 mm per century (29.5 inches) which is far more than the average over the last century.
From 1880 to 2000 sea level rose about 20 cm or just under 8 inches. Far far less than the nearly 30 inches per century average over the last 18,000 years.
On Facebook at "University of Virginia" you can.
https://www.facebook.com/UniversityofVirginia
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