Decreasing Vulnerability for Maine's Beach-Based Business Community - NERRS/NSC(NERRS Science Collaborative)

Using a collaborative approach that engages researchers and local business owners, the project team will adapt a tourism-resilience index for southern Maine businesses. After pilot-testing, a broader community of local business leaders will complete facilitated self-assessments in Kennebunkport and Kennebunk, Maine. Participating businesses will be given their custom tourism-resilience index, or score, along with a set of suggested steps they can take to increase their resiliency to natural disasters. The project team will meet with these same businesses one year later to reassess and measure progress. The project team will aggregate the indices of participating businesses and a summary of lessons learned will be shared with southern Maine chambers of commerce, municipalities and climate adaptation professionals. Strategies for adapting and implementing the tourism resilience index in different regions will also be shared with business communities, climate adaptation professionals, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve system. Project results will highlight common gaps and barriers businesses share when it comes to increasing their resilience to natural disaster. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

Sea-level rise and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change currently impact Maine's coastline and are anticipated to increase in frequency and strength. Beach-based businesses, a powerful economic engine for Maine, are generally little prepared for storm surge and coastal flooding. Yet lessons learned from previous disasters underscore how important the recovery of businesses is to the overall recovery of a region's economy.

This project will adapt and transfer the Tourism Resilience Index, previously developed for the Gulf of Mexico, to southern Maine. Coastal businesses in Kennebunkport and Kennebunk will be facilitated through a process to assess their ability to maintain operations during and after a disaster. Through this project, the Wells NERR will collaborate with business leaders, municipalities and regional climate adaptation professionals to generate outcomes that decrease Maine's beaches business community's vulnerability to natural disasters.

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Annie Cox

Wells NERR, ME

acox@wellsnerr.org

(207) 646-1555 x157

Partners:

Kennebunk-KennebunkportArundel Chamber of Commerce

Laudholm Trust

Town of Kennebunkport, ME

Wells NERR, ME

The distributor does not assume liability.

None

Cite this dataset when used as a source: NOAA retains the right to analyze, synthesize and publish summaries of the NERRS/NSC data. The NERRS/NSC retains the right to be fully credited for having collected and process the data. Following academic courtesy standards, the NERR site where the data were collected should be contacted and fully acknowledged in any subsequent publications in which any part of the data are used. The data enclosed within this package/transmission are only as accurate as the quality assurance and quality control procedures that are described in the associated metadata reporting statement allow. The user bears all responsibility for its subsequent use/misuse in any further analyses or comparisons. The Federal government does not assume liability to the Recipient or third persons, nor will the Federal government reimburse or indemnify the Recipient for its liability due to any losses resulting in any way from the use of this data. Requested citation format: NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Science Collaborative(NSC).