Abstract

Creating Resilient Communities in Coastal South Carolina: A Case Study
Track: GeoDesign
Authors: Susan Lowrance

Creating Resilient Communities is a demonstration project to integrate ecosystem-based management and conventional land use planning. Working with Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester Counties, the goal was to model alternative regional futures and evaluate outcomes related to natural hazards, community vulnerability, biodiversity conservation, and sea level rise. The region includes urban Charleston and North Charleston and extensive rural and suburban areas. Population is growing rapidly. Marine and coastal ecosystems face significant pressures from human uses, natural hazards, and rising sea levels. Three planning teams supported an integrated and holistic planning process. Teams applied Community Resilience and Vulnerability Assessment Toolkit created by NOAA, NatureServe Vista, and Placeway's CommunityViz for data modeling, scenario analysis and visualization. This presentation will discuss planning tools and strategies: innovative outreach methods and technologies to engage stakeholders; spatial decision support incorporating local issues within a regional database; and land use planning software as an integrating planning framework.