More than a dozen coastal communities will receive grants for help with risk assessment and resilience planning through the Resilient Coastal Communities Program.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, which oversees the program, is to award a total of $1.1 million to Ahoskie, Atlantic Beach, Aulander, Burgaw Carteret County for Cedar Island, Creswell, Edenton, Elizabeth City, Holly Ridge, Kitty Hawk, Ocean Isle Beach, Pasquotank County for Newland Township, Plymouth, Washington County for Scuppernong River Basin, and Washington Park.
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“These grant awards are an investment in the future of our coastal communities, to support their resilience planning and capacity,” Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser said in a statement. “We are pleased to work with our local partners to identify and prioritize projects to address flooding and other coastal hazards and help protect the public and economic health of their communities.”
The Resilient Coastal Communities Program is implemented over four phases. Phase one is community engagement, and risk and vulnerability assessment. Phase two is planning, project selection, and prioritization. Phase three is project engineering and design. Phase four is implementation.
The awards announced Friday are for the selected 15 communities to complete the first two phases of the program.
Community applications were scored across seven criteria, including their level of risk exposure to vulnerable population and critical assets, their economic status and need, and their internal capacity and momentum with related efforts.
Service providers selected by the division will support the development of the communities’ Resilience Strategies, working directly with local governments and the Community Action Teams created within each participating locality.
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The division will contract with the following nine third-party service providers for direct technical assistance services to the localities: Dewberry Engineers Inc., Kleinfelder Inc., Mid-East Commission, Moffatt & Nichol Inc., Rummel, Klepper, and Kahl, LLP, Stewart Inc., SWCA Environmental Consulting, Weston & Sampson and WSP USA.
Service provider applications were scored across 10 different criteria that includes their experience in resilience planning, identifying and mapping critical assets and implementing nature-based solutions.
The program helps local governments to overcome barriers to coastal resilience and adaptation planning, boost local government capacity, and support a proactive, sustainable, and equitable approach to planning and project implementation.
The program receives funding through a combination of state and federal sources. For more information about the Resilient Coastal Communities program, visit the division website.
