Coastal Conference in Massachusetts to Help Communities Prepare for Rising Sea Levels

Added by James Morley on September 9, 2010

The ‘Living on the Edge: Coastal Communities Conference’ will bring together leading government officials, insurance experts, policy makers and scientists in an effort to help coastal inhabitants in the unwanted situation when sea levels could destroy coastal communities, ecosystem and beaches. Professionals from various sectors, together with government officials, will attend the conference in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on September 24, to discuss the issues and viable options for coastal communities in the case of a disaster.

During the first Living on the Edge: Coastal Communities Conference, a visualization of rising sea levels and its impact on coastal communities will be showcased. Discussion will go around the options, solutions and precautions that coastal inhabitants can take to adapt to this ‘Living on the Edge’ type of environment and lessen the impact of a possible disaster.

The visualization during the conference will be discussed by experts from the US Geological Survey’s Coastal and Marine Geology Program, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and the Climate Central, and will be led by main speaker Ian A. Bowles, Massachusetts’ Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The Living on the Edge Conference will take place in Nantucket, Massachusetts, at the Coffin School located on Winter Street. Sponsors of the conference are the Egan Maritime Institute and ReMain Nantucket, together with the Maria Mitchell Association, The Nature Conservancy and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.