Despite increased interest in and funding for coastal resilience, Great Lakes coastal managers have not been able to keep pace with community needs, particularly as water levels fluctuate, storms intensify, and the climate continues to change.
To identify resource needs and gaps and to support approaches to coastal resilience, a Michigan Sea Grant-led team conducted interviews and convened a workshop and briefing with over 50 coastal managers and experts. They published their findings in a January 2025 article, “Resourcing Michigan’s coastal decision-makers: Assessing needs and opportunities,” in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. The article was co-authored by staff members Mike Shriberg, Silvia Newell, and Kat Cameron; University of Michigan graduate student Abigail Merolle; and U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning professor Richard K. Norton.
The team’s results showed a strong need for support in prioritizing equitable shoreline protection strategies, securing and using funds, communicating and engaging with communities, and working alongside regulations and community plans.
Some common barriers included lack of capacity among coastal managers, incomplete understanding about problems and solutions, and a lack of political incentives for proactive decision-making. These gaps can lead to short-term, highly localized decisions that may have adverse impacts on the communities they’re intended to protect.
In response, workshop participants and the study team developed a community-based framework comprising five pillars:
- Planning assistance;
- Legal/policy assistance;
- Ecologically informed technical assistance;
- Communication and community engagement; and
- Funding assistance.
To help implement these pillars, participants suggested forming three overlapping communities of practice as well as the creation of a coastal resilience resource hub (currently tailored for Michigan with plans to expand regionwide) as a repository of resources to support coastal managers in decision-making.