S.C. Sea Grant Consortium begins resilience planning project

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A South Carolina group focused on the well-being of people along the coast, as well as marine and coastal conservation, has a new project in the works designed to highlight what efforts are being taken across the state to prepare and respond to things like flooding and other emergencies.

The South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium is working on a project that’s all about resilience planning—or planning for challenges the state might face, including emergencies and economic blows. This project can be used by state agencies, local municipalities and even community members, according to Executive Director Susan Lovelace.

Towns, cities, and counties all have resilience plans, Lovelace says, but there is not an easy way for decision makers, state agencies or residents to know what all is being done to prepare for the future for things like disasters.

“Resilience is a critical issue along our coast,” Lovelace says. “Our communities are responding especially when it comes to flooding, whether from rain or sea level rise. This year there’s also the new South Carolina Office of Resilience that the legislature funded and they’re trying to produce a resilience plan for the state of South Carolina and at the same time they don’t know everything that is going on in all of these communities.”

This project compiles the various resilience plans across the state in one location online, the leader of the project, Taylor Allred, says. State agencies can look at it to know what decisions to make, but you also can look at it to see what is being done in your community.

For example, you can look up Charleston’s Climate Action Plan or Folly Beach’s Beach Management Plan.

“Everyone in the community could benefit from seeing what kind of risk they’re facing in terms of natural disasters and what’s being done to try and mitigate that risk,” Allred says. “Flooding is a serious problem in many parts of the state, especially here in Charleston, and I think this could be really helpful for folks to have a better idea of what they’re facing and what’s being done.”

The project has already compiled have hundreds of documents from across South Carolina so far, Allred says, but they’re continuously adding more information and plans to create a more accurate picture of what’s being done across the state.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.