Wetlands Watch was notified that it was awarded a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment to begin work with the business sector on sea level rise adaptation.  The funded project will begin a conversation with the business sector in southeastern Virginia on how various parts of that sector view sea level rise and the need and means to adapt to it going forward.

This work is essential to progress on adaptation in tidal Virginia, which is experiencing the highest rate of relative sea level rise on the Atlantic Coast.  Southeastern Virginia is ranked #10 in the world for value of assets at risk from sea level rise. This work also becomes more important as business opposition is seen to sea level rise adaptation work (see blogs on North Carolina and San Francisco Bay)

The goal of this work will be to identify barriers to adaptation in various economic sectors in order to start working with businesses willing to start adaptation planning.  A secondary goal is to generate support for efforts to secure funding from federal agency sources to advance adaptation planning and implementation in Virginia.