Climate Smart Working Waterfronts

Working waterfronts throughout Maine face a range of climate-related risks from sea level rise, warming waters, ocean acidification, heavier rainfall events, and extreme heat. In addition, working waterfronts are complex cultural and economic ecosystems, involving an array of infrastructure, operations, and businesses. Responding to these climate impacts not only builds socioeconomic resilience but unveils the possibility for new economic opportunities.

This project leverages our climate science expertise, community-driven municipal planning approach, and knowledge of waterfront economies to develop a planning pathway to ensure Maine’s coastal communities aren’t just prepared for climate change but are empowered to thrive in a warmer world and capitalize on the economic opportunity that responding to climate change can realize.

A Pathway for Climate Planning For Working Waterfronts

Working waterfronts are a complex ecosystem of infrastructure, assets, relationships and uses – with deep social and cultural value - planning for climate impacts on working waterfronts necessitates a robust and holistic process. This framework is adapted from the U.S Climate Resilience Toolkit’s “Steps to Resilience.”

1. Getting Started

• Find your partners: Engage residents, business owners, fishermen, municipal staff, and other waterfront users. Use multiple engagement methods to understand perspectives and build trust.
• Consult existing planning documents.
• Set an initial goal and envision what a climate-resilient working waterfront would look like for users and the community.
• Understand values and processes that drive decision-making on and for the working waterfront.

2. Understand Exposure

• Inventory assets, functions, values, and users of working waterfronts.
• Map out connections between the working waterfront and broader systems such as supply chains, and ecosystem health.
• Identify current and future climate hazards, and consider which stressors are most likely to affect the working waterfront.
• Document and examine historical impacts using photos, videos, and written accounts.

3. Assess Vulnerability and Risk

• Identify which assets or components of the working waterfront could be impacted by climate hazards.
• Characterize risks, impacts, and consequences associated with each hazard to physical infrastructure and the values associated with the working waterfront.
• Assess adaptive capacity: evaluate how well assets, people, institutions, and networks can absorb, respond to, and recover from climate impacts.

4. Investigate Options

• Analyze past events for lessons-learned and potential solutions.
• Identify strategies to minimize the climate risk or impact.
• Identify co-benefits of climate resilience efforts, aligned with the multiple values associated with the working waterfront.
• Determine the feasibility of options.
• Review goals to ensure strategies align with the overall vision for a climate-resilient working waterfront.

5. Prioritize and Plan

• Consolidate preferred strategies into a clear set of actions for working waterfront sites and users.
• Evaluate costs, benefits, and value-based tradeoffs for each action to be taken on the working waterfront.
• Assess institutional and community readiness and identify barriers to implementation of resilience actions within the working waterfront community.
• Plan projects and co-develop implementation pathways, including project sequencing and responsibilities among fishermen, municipal staff, business owners, residents, and other waterfront users.
• Confirm that the prioritized actions maintain alignment with the overarching goals of working waterfront users and sites, as well as the broader working waterfront community.

6. Take Action

• ​​Identify funding options and secure resources to support the implementation of working waterfront resilience actions.
• Implement the plan, ensuring clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines for working waterfront stakeholders.
• Maintain engagement with residents, business owners, fishermen, municipal staff, and other waterfront users to encourage collaboration and feedback throughout the process.
• Iterate and adjust solutions as needed based on new information, changing conditions, stakeholder input, or opportunities for collaboration.

Tools and Services

Whether you are just beginning to assess climate risks or advancing a long-term adaptation strategy, our Community Climate Action team can help. We offer a range of tools and services that meet communities where they are in their resilience planning. For more information about any of the offerings listed here, please contact our team.

Assessing Adaptive Capacity Templates

This tool supports identifying a community’s adaptive capacity and institutional readiness — the strengths, assets, and limitations that shape how they can respond to climate impacts on working waterfronts. It is not a scorecard, but a guide to structured reflection and discussion.

Working Waterfronts Climate Vulnerability Workbook

This workbook provides a structured process to document assets and infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and evaluate the potential impacts of climate hazards to working waterfronts.

Coastal Flooding Vulnerability Assessment Template

This tool identifies flooding timelines for working waterfront utilities and assets, based on present-day flood thresholds and future sea level rise projections.

Non-Monetary Evaluation of a Working Waterfront

This tool uses qualitative and quantitative metrics to track and monitor various values that working waterfronts generate, supporting the integration of diverse services (beyond economic activities) provided by working waterfronts in decision-making processes.

Planning Forward: Scenario-Based Planning for Working Waterfronts

Through this hands-on scenario-based planning exercise, participants reflect on shared values, histories, and connections that define their working waterfront communities, and explore strategies and tradeoffs for addressing these impacts, developing a future vision for their community’s working waterfront.

Funding Research and Application Support

Guidance to communities in exploring funding options, developing financial models, and preparing materials for working waterfront project applications.