Building Coast-Smart Communities

“Building Coast-Smart Communities” Event
Monday, April 27, 10 am - 3:00 p.m.

Overview: Maryland needs “Coast-Smart” communities that are prepared for sea level rise and other climate change impacts. This high-visibility, interactive event will bring together 200-300 diverse stakeholders to discuss and evaluate various adaptive options by negotiating plausible, local-action strategies through a role-play simulation. The innovative negotiation session will assist and promote the real-life decision-making around climate change that is needed in communities along Maryland’s shores. The half-day event will also showcase practical tools, resources and incentives to help Maryland coastal communities become ready, adaptive and resilient in the face of climate change. The event is an integral part of the implementation of Maryland’s Climate Action Plan.

The Simulation: The purpose of the simulated negotiation is to engage key local and state leaders in difficult conversations about the steps coastal communities can take to adapt to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise, storm inundation and coastal erosion. This simulation will be based on a hypothetical Maryland community that reflects the reality of many of our coastal towns and cities.

In the simulation, participants will negotiate a set of actions that this hypothetical Maryland coastal community must take to reduce its vulnerability to climate change. The actions will be scored on a “Coast-smart community scorecard” that ranks each action’s effectiveness and cost. Participants will play the role of different stakeholders in this hypothetical community and must reach a minimum total score to qualify for benefits under a hypothetical state-funded, incentive-based initiative called the Coast Smart Community Bill. Through this simulated negotiation, participants will:

• Witness firsthand how diverse community stakeholders can negotiate agreements to address the challenge of climate change coastal impacts.
• Quickly learn more about the choices communities face as they adapt to new risks.
• Learn new negotiating skills, and practice them in a safe environment
• Gain knowledge about other community stakeholders’ viewpoints and concerns

Importantly, this initial event will create a network of community leaders who can replicate the simulation process in their own community while coordinating and learning from other Maryland coastal communities.

The Partnership: To help Maryland coastal communities adapt and respond to climate change, Maryland DNR’s Chesapeake and Coastal Program (CCP) has initiated the “Building Coast-Smart Communities” project in partnership with the M.I.T. – U.S.G.S. Science Impact Collaborative (M.U.S.I.C.) and the Consensus Building Institute (CBI). The MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative program called MUSIC - tests new approaches to environmental policy-making and natural resource management by tackling “real world” assignments. Their goal is to develop and deploy new procedures and methods for setting environmental policy in a rapidly changing world. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) established MUSIC in 2004. MUSIC is located within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT – the top-ranked graduate program in urban and environmental planning in North America. The Consensus Building Institute, a Washington, D.C. and Cambridge, MA-based nonprofit affiliated with MIT, improves the way that leaders use negotiations to make organizational decisions, achieve agreements, and manage multi-party conflicts and planning efforts.

DETAILED AGENDA

Monday, April 27, 2009
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium

9:00-10:00    Light Breakfast & Coffee

10:00-10:10    Welcoming Remarks (John Griffin, Secretary MD DNR)

10:10-10:15    Welcome to Annapolis (Ellen Moyer, Mayor, City of Annapolis)

10:15-10:35    Introduction to Scenario and Simulation Process (Larry Susskind, Co-Director MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative (MUSIC))

10:35- 11:00    Preparation & Strategy - participants will meet within groups playing the same roles

11:00- 11:15    Break

11:15- 1:00    Facilitated Negotiations of the Coast-Smart Community Scorecard (MACRO, Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office)

1:00- 2:00    Lunch & Table Discussions of Coast-Smart Community Scorecard Negotiations

2:00- 2:40    Report-out and Lessons Learned (Larry Susskind, Co-Director MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative (MUSIC))

2:40- 3:00    Taking the simulation and climate change adaptation ideas out to the public-at-large (Group Discussion)

3:00        Adjourn