Presenter: Legna Torres-Garcia (United States Geological Survey)

Description:
Underrepresented communities are disproportionately impacted by coastal hazards due to lack of physical protections and limited resources to fortify existing structures or adaptively rebuild. We are conducting focused stakeholder engagement to connect critical coastal hazards and vulnerability information and resources from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to coastal communities in Puerto Rico. The project is being implemented in three phases. To support the first phase, building a database of USGS relevant environmental hazards projects and resources, we hosted a meeting of USGS principal investigators researching coastal erosion, inland flooding, landslides, earthquakes, and water quality in Puerto Rico. In phase two, focus groups were conducted with representatives from other federal agencies, academia, local and state government as well as community leaders from all coastal regions, and a diversity of interests to learn specifically about coastal hazards information needs. The focus groups provided an opportunity to share information on relevant USGS hazards resources and to identify knowledge gaps that future coastal research projects in Puerto Rico could address. In the third phase of the project, we will host two in-person stakeholder engagement workshops to better connect hazards information with the local coastal communities. We are also developing a Spanish/English geo-narrative of shoreline changes in Puerto Rico, as well as training protocols in Spanish on various USGS tools that support coastal management decisions. From this effort, we aim to develop collaborations with academic researchers and community partners to support development, planning, and coordination of future scientific projects aimed at mitigating the impacts of coastal hazards on communities in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, the project has the potential to serve as a blueprint for expanding USGS projects to other underrepresented communities.