MIT Sea Grant Climate Change Symposium: Sustaining Coastal Cities

This past June 16^th – 18^th we had the opportunity to attend the Climate Change Symposium: Sustaining Coastal Cities at the MIT Tang Center. We were invited by Dr. Pederson and Dr. Simpson from MIT Sea Grant (our project’s sponsor). This symposium was an excellent opportunity to learn how the country (and even other countries) are preparing for Climate Change. It helped me get a better perspective of all the issues that affect Coastal Communities, and it reiterated the importance of preparing for the changes that will come. The symposium encompassed Climate Change projections, and scenarios, modeling tools, social vulnerability, economic impacts, challenges with the built environment, and planning and implementation. All the sessions were very enriching and interesting, and it was a very valuable experience for us.

 The speakers presented a new degree of complexity for the different modeling tools available to model Climate Change, existing challenge with the legislation and how there is still a lot of work to do. This symposium definitely helped us get a better perspective with all the aforementioned issues, and it will be of great value for our report. From the City of Chelsea, Mr. DePriest and Mr. Robinson spoke about the challenges they are currently facing and the characteristics of the city; they expressed the importance of incorporating Climate Change considerations within the redevelopment efforts that are taking place in the city of Chelsea. I truly appreciate this opportunity presented by MIT Sea Grant (especially Judith Pedersen and Judith Simpson).