Resilience Steps

Created by UConn CLEAR in partnership with the Long Island Sound Study, this Population and Demographic Story Map explores the land and people in the Long Island Sound Watershed. From Canada down to the northern coast of Long Island, the watershed is a vastly diverse area in both land and people, populated by nearly 9 million people and characterized by farms, forests, urban centers, beaches, marshes and more. This story map showcases how the Sound is an integral part of the lives of those who live, work, and visit the region every day.

Check out our interactive map to learn about living shoreline projects located in the marine district of New York. 

More information about living shorelines and their benefits can be found on the NYSDEC Living Shorelines webpage.

The “Funding and Financing Coastal Resilience” webinar series from the NOAA Office for Coastal Management offers a comprehensive foundation for understanding how coastal resilience projects are funded and financed. These 30- to 45-minute recorded sessions break down complex approaches into accessible lessons, featuring experts who share real world examples, emerging strategies like environmental impact bonds and tax-increment financing, and ways to overcome common obstacles to funding such work. As a resource, the series is ideal if you’re looking to generate ideas, explore different financing pathways, and build your capacity to access and manage funding for nature-based or infrastructure-driven resilience efforts.

The GSI Impact Hub is an interactive platform that provides tools, research, and data to help communities plan and evaluate green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) projects. GSI uses natural systems like plants, soil, and stone to manage stormwater on-site reducing flooding, improving water quality, and creating healthier, more resilient neighborhoods. The Hub includes a benefits calculator, educational resources, and guidance to support city planners, advocates, and policymakers in designing projects that maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Explore the GSI Impact Calculator, Detailed Resource Library, and Project Background to better understand how GSI can reduce flooding, improve water quality, and build climate-resilient neighborhoods.

The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) has created an interactive data dashboard. This dashboard allows users to explore, visualize, and download regional data to support informed decision-making. Scroll down on the page and use the left/right arrows to access the information and visualizations.

The Connecticut Town Profiles is a project of CTData Collaborative in partnership with AdvanceCT (formerly the Connecticut Economic Resource Center). The Connecticut Town Profiles are two-page reports of demographic and economic information for Connecticut’s municipalities, regions, and the state as a whole. They contain information about population, major employers, education, fiscal information, labor force, housing and quality of life.

Community-driven relocation describes a situation where a community decides it will relocate,
in whole or in part, to reduce the risk faced by communities and individuals. This Community-Driven Relocation Subcommittee report provides background on community-driven relocation, an
overview of the current federal legal and programmatic landscape, and potential next steps that
Federal agencies can take, as part of a whole-of-government approach, to support communities
contemplating relocation.

Interactive map with county-level disaster declaration information and Congressional Districts for 2011-2023. Also includes a fact sheet and tables.

National Report with State-based County-level data detailing the experiences of communities as a result of climate change. State reports include eight maps that show where major disasters have occurred, where post-disaster support has been given, where the most socially vulnerable populations reside, and the energy reliability by utility area. It also provides county-level disaster data within State Assembly, Senate, and Congressional district boundaries.

This Story Map was developed to provide an overview of the Westchester County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) to facilitate county-wide access to the plan. The Westchester County HMP was developed to provide a roadmap to resilience by identifying hazards affecting the county and its communities.

Suffolk County and the local governments within Suffolk County developed a FEMA approved Hazard Mitigation Plan, which documents risks from natural hazards and strategies to mitigate hazards.

National Report with State-based County-level data detailing the experiences of communities as a result of climate change. State reports include eight maps that show where major disasters have occurred, where post-disaster support has been given, where the most socially vulnerable populations reside, and the energy reliability by utility area. It also provides county-level disaster data within State Assembly, Senate, and Congressional district boundaries.

Assess your county’s exposure and resilience to flooding and the potential economic impacts.

A platform with resources by state for brownfield remediation, resilience, and sustainable redevelopment.

Shows areas vulnerable to near-term flooding from different combinations of sea level rise, storm surge, tides, and tsunamis, or to permanent submersion by long-term sea level rise. Within the U.S., it incorporates the latest, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar elevation data supplied by NOAA (exceptions: see Sources), displays points of interest, and contains layers displaying social vulnerability, population density, and property value.

Connecticut Insurance Department CID, in Collaboration with First Street Foundation, provides climate related risk mapping tool for Connecticut residents.  This tool allows users to search Connecticut property addresses to view maps and reports that provide detailed property-specific climate risk assessments, particularly for flood, wildfire, extreme heat, and hurricane wind hazards. This free risk mapping tool allows homeowners, home buyers, small-business owners, and community leaders to identify the risks using state-of-the-art climate risk mapping technology.

A product of Climate Central’s Sea Level Program, Coastal Risk Finder allows users to get local flood projections, understand who and what is at risk in their communities, and learn about solutions for coastal states, counties, cities, towns, congressional districts, and state legislative districts in the contiguous U.S., with more to come. Users can download data and graphics to further their local adaptation and communication efforts related to coastal flooding. Coastal Risk Finder includes detailed briefs on adaptation efforts in coastal states and territories, providing insights into policies, projects, and key organizations working to mitigate flood risks. By highlighting actionable solutions, we aim to empower communities with the knowledge and tools needed to address coastal flooding challenges.

The accompanying User Guides highlight the most useful features and provide guidance on using the tool for specific applications. A recording of the Launch Webinar featuring expert insights is also available.

The Connecticut Housing Data Hub provides users the ability to explore several categories of state- and town-wide housing data over time. Available data on the dashboard includes permitting, housing stock, rent burden, and housing programs.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.

The New York State Climate Impacts Assessment explores current and future climate change impacts to New York State communities, ecosystems, and economy. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) assembled more than 250 New York–based, national, and Indigenous climate science experts and representatives from diverse communities and industries across the state to contribute to this assessment. The findings are intended to help residents, businesses, and decision-makers across the state plan and prepare for climate change impacts.

This toolkit describes “how” local government leads and partners can design more fundable projects by pulling specific policy levers, seeking key partnerships, using innovative accounting practices, inverting power structures, and rethinking and redesigning internal processes. It will help local government leads and partners operate within current finance and policy systems to better prepare themselves and their communities for climate resilience funding and finance.

User-friendly access to expert-reviewed interactive maps on key topics such as marine life and habitat, marine-based industry, use and resources in the northeastern United States. The Data Explorer allows the user to define and view any combination of data hosted on the Portal on one map.

These community profiles are intended to be used by municipal officials and planners working to make their communities more economically, environmentally, and socially resilient. Includes datasets related to FEMA disaster and non-disaster funding, flood insurance claims, social vulnerability, and other community stats.

An effort by Save the Sound and Earth Economics to identify opportunities for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies and funders to improve the ability of benefit-cost analysis tools to account for ecosystem-based benefits.

Connecticut-specific site with maps, data, and visualization tools. Contains: Blue Plan, MS4 Viewer, CT Parcel Viewer, Sea Level Rise Effects on Roads & Marshes, CT DEEP Fish Community Data – Inland Waters, CT Aquaculture Mapping Atlas, CT Coastal Hazards Viewer, Carbon Stock & Land Cover Viewer

Healthy ecosystems provide a wide range of benefits, from recreational opportunities to storm surge protection. These benefits are often referred to as ecosystem services. Understanding how changes to the ecosystem may affect these benefits should play a role in the community’s decision making process. This page provides a guide to learning more and key NOAA Digital Coast resources useful for this task.

The Long Island Sound Sustainable and Resilient Communities (SRC) Team held our 2024 Annual Workshop virtually as three sessions over two days. Session topics focused on our assistance programs, new regional resilience resources and tools, and a discussion on planning for inundation and different considerations communities may face.

Session 3 – Planning for Inundation was held on Wednesday, December 11th from 10 AM-12 PM. Participants heard from communities and regional entities that are using or considering different aspects of planning for inundation, including buyout programs, land use policies, and community perspectives on retreat/relocation.

The second annual Long Island Sound Bi-State Sustainable and Resilient Communities Workshop brought together nearly 200 people virtually on Dec. 7, 2023 to learn about a new Long Island Sound Resilience Resource Hub (launching in early 2024), hear from communities and groups around the Sound working on resilience planning, and consider pathways for updating codes and ordinances. Videos of the workshop’s six sessions are available on YouTube. They can be accessed below along with supporting documents.

On Thursday, June 15, Save the Sound, Connecticut Sea Grant, New York Sea Grant, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Earth Economics hosted an invite-only workshop, “Expanding the Benefit-Cost Analysis for Nature-Based Solutions,” which was attended by more than 50 professionals from federal and state agencies, municipalities, environmental NGOs, and engineering firms.
The workshop reviewed the results of an effort by Save the Sound and Earth Economics to identify opportunities for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies and funders to improve the ability of benefit-cost analysis tools to account for ecosystem-based benefits. See here for the associated report, Expanding FEMA’s Benefit Cost Analysis: Chittenden Living Shoreline Case Study (published June 2023).