Coastal Adaptation & Sea-Level Rise Resilience

Four walks along the coastline that is going to change, with the people who model it.

Booking now

Each session2 hr a session

How oftenOnce a week

Cohort10–14 per cohort

SeasonYear-round · a new cohort starts each month

What you leave with

A citizen proposal for a municipal climate action plan, drafted by the cohort

A climate science and public policy salon walked along vulnerable bluffs, beaches and harbour infrastructure. What one to two metres actually means here, and managed retreat against seawall armouring.

It is a genuine argument rather than a settled one, and the cohort meets coastal planners and researchers in the last session to make it properly.

What makes this one worth it

Oceanographic Modeling & Sea-Level Dynamics
Hard Armoring Against Living Shorelines
Managed Retreat, Property Rights & Civic Economics
Community Resilience Action Plans & Policy Roundtable

What is included

All 4 sessions of the 4-week cohort — 8 hours of instruction
A place held for you for the whole run, in a cohort of 10–14
Every piece of equipment listed below, provided on the day
Your instructor, and their attention in a group this size

What to bring

Water, and something to eat if you want it
Nothing else — the kit is provided

How it runs

Once a week · 2 hr a session

Frequency: 1x / week — 2 hours
Session length: 2 hr
Each month: 4 sessions, about 8 hours
Cohort size: 10 – 14 participants
Where: Coastal bluff viewpoints, low-lying neighbourhoods, and oceanfront community rooms
Level: All Levels
Commitment: Monthly — stay as long as it is worth it

What you cover, in rotation

The group works through these in order and then begins again on fresh ground. Join at whatever stage it is on — nothing here assumes you were there for the last one, and nothing runs out — or drop in for a single session if that is all you can manage.

Stage 1Oceanographic Modeling & Sea-Level Dynamics
- Thermal expansion, ice sheet dynamics and IPCC projections for the region.
- The compounding impact of El Niño storm surges and king tides.
- Walking low-lying infrastructure to visualise the inundation maps.
Stage 2Hard Armoring Against Living Shorelines
- The physics and ecology of seawalls, revetments and rip-rap.
- Why hard seawalls cause passive erosion and the loss of public beach.
- Cobble berms, oyster reefs and vegetated dunes.
Stage 3Managed Retreat, Property Rights & Civic Economics
- The legal and economic reality of managed retreat along eroding bluffs.
- Coastal Commission mandates against private blufftop homeowners.
- Relocating rail corridors, sewer mains and coastal highways.
Stage 4Community Resilience Action Plans & Policy Roundtable
- Regional adaptation case studies.
- Formulating citizen proposals for municipal climate action plans.
- A sunset discussion with coastal planners and ocean researchers.