FELLOW NEWS News for and about the NOAA Fel lows

Fellows Look Ahead 2018ndash2020 Our new fellows will tackle critical coastal issues

In April NOAArsquos Office for Coastal Management matched NOAA Coastal Management and Digital Coast Fellowship candidates with coastal zone programs in six US states and territories and three Digital Coast partner organizations Recipients of the two-year fellowships will carry out innovative projects addressing sea level rise sustainable development coastal tourism coastal resilience hazard mitigation and response dredge project prioritization and shoreline armoring

Ellen Bartow-Gillies from Texas AampM University and nominated by Texas Sea Grant was matched with the Maine Coastal Program to protect critical ecosystem services by designing and applying a

method to prioritize habitats at risk and inform robust policies and strategies that will increase the resilience of important resource areas

Richard Buzard from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and nominated by Alaska Sea Grant was matched with the National States Geographic Information Council to help rural Alaskan coastal

communities understand flood impacts and respond to coastal storms and develop flood impact guidance for coastal mapping on

the last frontier Rich will be working with the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and collaborating with local regional state federal and national stakeholders

Alexis Cunningham from the University of Delaware and nominated by Delaware Sea Grant was matched with the Coastal States Organization (CSO) to lead CSO and the

Association of State Floodplain Managersrsquo efforts to promote and improve the Community Rating System (CRS) as a tool to achieve coastal flood resilience This will include bridging the gap for communities that do not have sufficient capacity to join or advance in the CRS

Sierra Davis from the University of Rhode Island and nominated by Rhode Island Sea Grant was matched with the Delaware Coastal Program to use stakeholder input to develop a

method to prioritize dredging projects in Delaware that is easily understood and accepted by the public

Sydney Fishman from Duke University and nominated by North Carolina Sea Grant was matched with the Washington Coastal Zone Management Program to provide coastal managers

with information and tools to improve implementation of shoreline armoring regulations on Washingtonrsquos Puget Sound

Kelsey McClellan from the College of Charleston and nominated by South Carolina Sea Grant was matched with the CNMI Division of Coastal Resources Management to establish and pilot a

stakeholder-informed method of calculating the user capacity of impaired and emerging tourist sites in the CNMI and provide clear implementation recommendations to guide the sustainable development of a growing tourism industry

Amber Roberts from Stanford University and nominated by California Sea Grant was matched with the California Coastal Commission to complete several key sea level rise-related projects

that include data analysis vulnerability assessment and stakeholder engagement to advance the coastal commissionrsquos overall planning and regulatory work on sea level rise

Shanna Williamson from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and nominated by Virginia Sea Grant was matched with the National Association of Counties in Washington DC to conduct original research and

outreach that will help coastal counties in Alabama Louisiana and Mississippi increase their long-term resilience She will do this by assessing their mitigation plans evaluating their disaster-related spending to determine their return on investment and ensuring their use of cutting-edge Digital Coast tools

Katie Wilson from Colorado State University and nominated by Texas Sea Grant was matched with the Illinois Coastal Program to enhance coastal tourism and regional-identity branding in the three

northernmost Illinois coastal communities by strengthening outreach and communications about Illinois Beach State Park

coastnoaagov July 2018 | 1

Farwell to our2016ndash2018 Fellows We say farewell to nine amazing Coastal Management and Digital Coast fellows

Jane Ballard worked with the National Estuarine Research

Reserve Association to determine how to best communicate

and use ecosystem service values and related Digital Coast

resources in land use decisions that impact coastal habitats

Some of the final products she completed are a group of case studies and

materials for the communities surrounding the Wells and Great Bay Research

Reserves to help make decades of past research constructive for participatory

and transparent coastal land use decisions She also developed guidelines and

a series of materials for communicating values of specific services such as

blue carbon and of the ecosystem service work of the reserves which is

available in this ESRI Story Map

Alex Braud worked with the San Francisco Bay Conservation

and Development Commission to develop regional sediment

management plans as part of the commissionrsquos Sediment

Management Team He helped complete the plan for

central San Francisco Bay and continued on to the second phase which focuses

on San Pablo Bay The plan includes a synthesis of San Pablo Bayrsquos history and

current sediment dynamics challenges opportunities and recommendations

The plans will be used by flood control managers habitat restoration

practitioners and coastal managers to help make critical decisions

Morgan Chow worked with Nature Conservancyrsquos Climate

Risk and Resilience strategy on the Global Oceans Team

helping to promote a nature-based adaptation approach to

coastal hazards She developed products and materials for

Coastal Resilience applications coordinated outreach efforts and worked to

integrate the Climate Risk and Resilience program more strongly with disaster

risk reduction and humanitarian programs She developed an action guide that

seeks to clarify integration of environmental and humanitarian work and

recommend paths to overcome some of the barriers between sectors She also

completed a Coastal Resilience Measures Plan that details how the program

will measure success in applying science convening a network of practitioners

reaching business audiences and advancing geospatial technology Lastly she

advanced communications and training by creating a newsletter developing a

strategic communications plan and training module publishing several success

stories about the program and managing the program website

Joe Dwyer worked with the Wisconsin Coastal Management

Program and Wisconsin Sea Grant to create a comprehensive

public access guide for Wisconsinrsquos Great Lakes His final

product has two main components an online map viewer

displaying public access sites and site amenities on both Lake Michigan and

Lake Superior and a suite of online and interactive applications that help

people discover the wealth of Great Lakes resources in Wisconsin Joe also

authored and was awarded a NOAA Project of Special Merit grant to

organize a community of practice related to coastal hazards in the Lake

Superior watershed He coordinates local mapping professionals and

decision makers to produce improved and uniform flood models that can

be integrated into future community resilience plans

Matt Gerlach worked with the Washington State Department

of Ecology to build a feedback loop to better understand the

implementation of updated shoreline stabilization regulations

on Puget Sound He designed a framework for evaluating

shoreline-armoring permits for compliance with the updated regulations and

built a yearly audit process to develop a long-term implementation perspective

for adaptive management purposes In addition Matt worked with local

governments to design a checklist for reviewing shoreline geotechnical reports

and developed a spatial inventory of soft-shoreline stabilization and armor-

removal projects around Puget Sound

Monica Gregory worked with the North Carolina Division of

Coastal Management to lay the groundwork for resilience planning

in North Carolina She conducted vulnerability assessments with

five coastal communities to serve as case studies for a coastwide

resilience-building guide For these case studies each town created asset maps which

can be used to help the local governments plan for sea level rise and other coastal

hazards Each of the five case study towns received a final report with results from

the survey process mapping work and workshops and recommendations for

moving forward She also produced a guide to help communities walk through

each step of the vulnerability assessment process increase their long-term resilience

Alex Kuttesch worked with the New York Coastal Management

Program to develop a crowdsourcing mobile application for

gathering recreational-use data and to expand the New York

Geographic Information Gateway New Yorkrsquos oceanographic

data portal The mobile app the New York Recreation Information Tracker

allows the coastal management office to continuously collect data helping in

planning efforts and decision-making Recreational-use data are used in many of

the statersquos efforts including waterfront revitalization resilience planning and

offshore spatial planning As a part of his fellowship Alex also provided GIS

mapping and other program support to the Ocean and Great Lakes Policy team

Sumi Selvaraj worked with the California Coastal Commission

where she helped to develop the agencyrsquos first environmental justice

policy The new policy will help the commission make decisions

that protect coastal resources in ways that also benefit underserved

communities She plans to leave the fellowship with a draft environmental justice

policy that incorporates feedback from local stakeholder groups and resources that

help staff members assess environmental justice and social vulnerability in their

work Sumi also assisted staff members with the development of resources to support

implementation of the Commissionrsquos 2015 Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance

Jake Thickman worked with the Association of State Floodplain

Managers (ASFPM) and Coastal States Organization to develop

a series of reports focused on coastal flood risk management

policies including a comprehensive summary of federal programs

related to coastal flood risk insight on existing policies shaping flood risk management

at the state level and policy strategies to make coastal communities more resilient to

flood hazards All materials are available to coastal practitioners on ASFPMrsquos Flood

Science Center website

coastnoaagov July 2018 | 2