Coastal Programs and Resilience Planning
What is Resilience Planning?
Resilience planning is the development and implementation of measures to enable coastal communities to plan for and bounce back from coastal changes and hazards. Resilience planning incorporates both adaptation and mitigation objectives and measures that have distinct purposes and benefits.
- Adaptation is the implementation of measures to enable coastal communities to change with the changing coasts.
- Mitigation is the implementation of measures to minimize the impacts on coastal communities of future change and specifically coastal hazards.
Role of State and Territory Coastal Programs
The 34 State and Territory Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Programs are leaders in the development and implementation of coastal adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies. CZM Programs are on the ground to support communities at every step along the path to resilience. They have the flexibility to operate across multiple levels of government and are uniquely positioned to link cutting-edge federal data and tools with local communities to address coastal changes and hazards.
Resilience Planning: A Four Step Process
- Assess Risks and Vulnerabilities – identify coastal hazards including inundation and flooding, erosion, and coastal storms, and areas that are vulnerable to these hazards
- Identify Solutions and Make a Plan – identify social, economic, and ecological methods for reducing the impacts of these risks and make a plan for implementation
- Implement Actions – implement priority solutions to reduce coastal risks
- Monitor and Measure Effectiveness – observe and measure whether the solutions successfully reduce risk and evaluate needed changes
Resources

California Resilience Planning
California Resilience PlanningSan Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), one of the three California State agencies that make...
Virginia Resilience Planning
Virginia Resilience PlanningVirginia is developing the Commonwealth’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan aimed at increasing resilience to sea...
New Jersey Resilience Planning
New Jersey Resilience PlanningNew Jersey released a draft of its first statewide Climate Change Resilience Strategy for public comment. The...
Florida Resilience Planning
Florida Resilience PlanningFlorida Coastal Management Program has developed the Coastal Adaptation and Resilience Tools initiative and meets...
Hawai’i Resilience Planning
Hawai'i Resilience PlanningThe State of Hawaiʻi’s Office of Planning and Sustainable Development’s Statewide Sustainability Program, which includes...
Oregon Resilience Planning
Oregon Resilience PlanningThe Oregon Coastal Management Program (OCMP) has led an effort, in coordination with Oregon’s Department of Geology and...
Texas Resilience Planning
Texas Resilience PlanningThe Texas Coastal Management Program developed the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan to provide a framework for...