Overview

Communities in the Kenai Peninsula are already coping with a variety of impacts related to a warming climate, including reductions in wetland areas, glacial ice coverage, and freshwater availability, and increases in temperatures, ocean acidification, and harmful algal blooms. Barriers hindering effective climate change planning on the peninsula include the uncertainty of future trajectories, a need for a synthesis of regional data, and limited capacity for interagency collaboration. This project aimed to address these needs and help coastal communities on the Kenai Peninsula plan for a changing climate by engaging regional leaders and community stakeholders to collaboratively develop plausible future planning scenarious based on a wide range of possible environmental responses to a changing climate. 

Benefits

This project demonstrated the applicability of climate scenario planning and resulted in a wide range of benefits, including multiple enhanced facilitation strategies and new decision-support tools.

• Trainings and workshops hosted by the project team strengthened the climate change and coastal resiliency stakeholder network in the Kenai Peninsula. 

• The project team's engagement with municipal and borough Planning Commissions resulted in an expanded regional capacity to prepare for climate change, as well as in regional progress made towards tangible adaptation actions.

• The project resulted in multiple unexpected opportunities to build new partnerships, including with Alaska Sea Grant, NOAA's Office for Coastal Management, and the NERRS Science Collaborative's Successful Adaptation Indicators and Metrics project.

Resources

• Community needs, local climate science, and project workshop summaries about climate adaptation on the Kenai Peninsula
• Scenario narratives decision-support tool for the Kenai Peninsula to assess risks and identify opportunities from climate change
• Online toolbox with facilitation techniques and job-aid worksheets
• Communications products that engage a wide range of stakeholders, including a case study on the Adapt Alaska website, a climate resilience art contest, and a new educational program with local 3^rd - 6^th graders

Project Lead and Contact

Danielle Boudreau, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Email: dboudreau@trnerr.org

To learn more about this project, please visit: http://trnerr.org/climate-scenario-planning-alaska/ or view the project factsheet (PDF).