Helping Communities Adapt and Plan for Coastal Hazards: Coastal Zone Management Program Recommendations for National Tool Developers

Adapting to changing coastlines is an unprecedented planning challenge as coastal hazards, including those associated with climate change, influence all areas of resource management. Tools have been developed to aid in understanding coastal hazards and to facilitate the planning and implementation of adaptation strategies. Through interviews with members of eight geographically distributed state Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Programs and several federal and nonprofit partners, we explored the utility of current tools for on-the-ground adaptation planning and implementation needs. State CZM Programs operate as trusted information brokers at the nexus between national resources and local needs. Here we provide seven recommendations for how to overcome the challenges identified with tool discovery, lack of trust, and the coarse spatial resolution of national tools. Our findings suggest local community needs are better addressed when end-users play a role in the tool development process. We also recommend leveraging CZM Program connections because they have the knowledge and expertise to identify solutions and disseminate information. While the recommendations presented here were taken from the perspective of state CZM Programs regarding coastal tools, the lessons learned may provide valuable insight into the tool development process for other resource management fields.