About the Conference
The New Jersey Coastal Resilience Collaborative and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection hosted the 2024 New Jersey Coastal & Climate Resilience Conference on March 12-14 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. The conference assembled hundreds of coastal and climate resilience professionals and practitioners with the goals of:
- Engaging with New Jersey experts and leaders on the current state of coastal science and research, climate resilience and resilience planning, coastal management, ecological restoration, and other related topics.
- Fostering peer-to-peer learning on what makes for a successful project with community buy-in, whether it be a restoration project, a municipal resilience plan, or a floodplain buyout.
- Offering networking opportunities to build relationships & cultivate useful collaborations.
CONFERENCE AGENDA
Click here to view the final agenda as a PDF or click here to view an interactive version on the Whova web app.
CONFERENCE PODCAST
Listen to the interviews with over a dozen conference participants in this special episode of the America Adapts podcast.
Speaker Presentations
Below we’ve posted several presentation files that were made available for download by speakers at the three-day event. Slides are provided in the order of the event agenda. Additional files may be added to this page soon.
Day 1 – Slide Presentations – March 12
Morning Session
Municipal Support for Resilience Planning I
Moderator: Lisa Auermuller; Speakers: Matt von der Hayden, Angela Andersen, Elissa Commins, Amanda Archer, Nick Brown, Rebecca Hill
Communicating Climate Change I
Moderator: Janine Barr; Speakers: Christopher Schmitt, Devon Haines, Stephanie Nerbak, Chris Kane
- Achieving Municipal Public Education and Outreach Goals for Community Resiliency in NJ
- Community-Based Art Grant Program
- Getting to Yes for Climate Action – Collaborative Methods for Speed in Project Approvals and Implementation
- Stakeholder Engagement Methods to Inform Statewide Environmental Policies: An Ocean Acidification Case Study
Afternoon Breakouts
Communicating Climate Change II
Moderator: Devon Haines; Speakers: Glenn Schwartz, Dana Patterson Grear, Lindsay McNamara, Kelly Van Baalen, Amanda Archer
- Coastal Climate Concern Categories
- Not sexy, but necessary: how to improve internal communications to better share your science and impact
- How to Build a Digital Communications Toolkit for Climate Action
- MyCoast New Jersey: using community science in risk communication and resilience planning
Coastal Ecosystem Restoration II
Moderator: Bill Shadel; Speakers: Danielle McCulloch, Jessie Murray, Brian Marsh, Kaity Ripple, Jim Feaga
- Programmatic Approach To Assessing Salt Marsh In Delaware And New Jersey for Utilizing Low-Cost, Low-Disturbance Methods For Enhancing Resilience
- Introduction to the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Habitat and Aquatic Resource Research & Monitoring (CHARRM) Workgroup and Streamlining the Regulatory Review of Coastal Habitat Projects
Offshore Wind
Moderator: Joseph Bilinski; Speakers: Caitlin McGarigal, Sam Chin, Josh Kohut, Keith Dunton
- Overview of Offshore Wind Research and Monitoring Initiative (RMI)
- An autonomous-based oceanographic and ecological baseline to inform offshore wind development
Municipal Support for Resilience Planning II
Moderator: Meghan Leavey; Speakers: Anne Heasly, Tanya Rohrbach, Lucas Marxen, Pritpal Bamhrah
- A model climate hazard vulnerability assessment for integrated municipal resilience planning
- Navigating Climate Impacts and Resilience – Rutgers’ NJ Climate Navigator Tool
Afternoon Plenary
Moderator: Nicholas Angarone; Speakers: James Shope, Anushi Garg, Ravena Pernanand, David Eisenhauer
Day 2 – Slide Presentations – March 13
Morning Breakouts
Coastal Ecosystem Restoration III
Moderator: Rebecca Hill; Speakers: Captain Al Modjeski, Steven Hafner, Stephanie Feigin, Shelby Rinehart, Kevin Dahms, Brooke Maslo
- Creating Resilient Marsh and Beach Habitat in Delaware Bay: The Evolution of a Regional Restoration Strategy in the Face of Climate Change
- The value of a burrow: integrating burrowing crab facilitation into tidal marsh restoration
- Regenerative stormwater conveyance and sand seepage wetlands: nature-based strategies to improve surface water resources and increase our wetland inventory
- Creating flood resilient landscapes in NJ communities
Municipal Support for Resilience Planning III
Moderator: Meghan Leavey; Speakers: Nicholas Tufaro, Vicki Chou, Mary Kimball, Megan Bushlow, Delilah Navarro, Eric Resnick
- Resilient NJ: Protect, Restore, Transition
- Community resilience and inclusive regional planning: Resilient NJ
- Beyond the Barrier; the resilience of connecting people to place
Climate Resilience I
Moderator: Joe Barris, AICP/PP/CFM, Harriet Honigfeld; Speakers: Nicholas Ginther, Amber Mallm, Bridget Neary, Karen Keene, Christopher Crane, Elissa Commins, Vincent Mazzei
Lunch Plenary
Speaker: A.R. Sliders
Afternoon Breakouts
Beneficial Use I
Moderator: Adrianna Zito-Livingston; Speakers: Scott Douglas, Monica Chasten, Erin Rooney, Nick Brown, Jim Feaga, Tyler Kinney, Virginia Rettig, Eric Rosina, Dane Ward
Nature-Based Shoreline Stabilization
Moderator: Terry Doss; Speakers: Jon Miller, Joe Berg, Erfan Amini, Ben Nash, Matthew Janssen
- Living Shorelines: Past, Present, and Future
- Living or Nature-Based Shorelines in Sandusky Bay, Ohio: Designs for Water Quality and Habitat Improvements
- Optimized Desing Parameters of Hybrid Vegetation-Seawall Coastal Systems to Enhance Robustness and Flood Serviceability
- Coastal Resiliency and Shoreline Restoration: Design and Post-Construction Review of Living Shoreline Projects
Afternoon Plenary
Moderator: Tom Herrington; Speakers: Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba, Michel Boufadel, Michael DeLuca, Kimberly McKenna, Jon Miller, Lisa Auermuller
- Setting a Research Agenda for Climate Resilience Informed Decision Making
- Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH): Bringing together researchers and stakeholders to effectively inform the critical challenges of equitable climate risk management
Day 3 – Slide Presentations – March 14
Morning Breakouts
Climate Resilience II
Moderator: Nick Brown; Speakers: Amy Chester, David Roberts
Coastal Ecosystems & Communities I
Moderator: Kimberly McKenna ; Speakers: Virginia Rettig, Angela Andersen, Tom Herrington, Nora Morton, Robert Yaro, Daniel Gutman
Beneficial Use of Sediments II
Moderator: Lenore Tedesco; Speakers: Colleen Keller, Ginger Kopkash, Monica Chasten, Brian Harris
- Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab Structure, Function and the Advancement of BUDM within USACE
- Moving Beyond Case Studies: What Have We Learned from the Suite of SMIIL Projects
- SMIIL: Supporting Restoration with Research
- SMIIL and other NBS Projects Informing the Regulatory Review
- Abbotts Meadow Wetland Restoration Project
- Scotch Bonnet Island Marsh Restoration and Infrastructure Protection Project – Cape May Wetlands WMA
Thank You to Our Conference Supporters
