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“We see these challenges too often. Storms, excessive heat, drought, and, of course, flooding, and not just from rainfall and storm surge, but from king tides and sunny day flooding. These challenges result in huge social and economic costs. They disrupt our daily lives, and they can cause property loss and other economic impacts.”
— Tancred Miller, Director, NC Division of Coastal Management

The Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP), administered by North Carolina’s Division of Coastal Management (DCM), creates a path to mitigate the coastal hazards communities face.

The program helps communities set resilience goals, assess their capacity to reach them, and then identify and prioritize projects. Once projects are chosen, DCM facilitates their design and implementation.

RCCP was initiated by the North Carolina State legislature in 2019 and through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund after Hurricane Florence.

According to Tancred Miller, “The Division of Coastal Management and our partners recognized that the coast was experiencing new challenges that we simply weren’t adequately prepared to handle. The RCCP meets communities where they are whether they are just beginning to think about resilience or are already implementing projects.”

A new film highlights the value of collaborations between state government and local communities. Community members share their stories about the RCCP process as well as the ways partnerships can solve complex problems.

“We have seen communities start the planning process in this program and in less than four years they’ve completed resilience projects on the ground,” says Sarah Speigler, coastal resilience specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant. “Those can be things like stormwater wetlands projects or tree bioswales and that’s what we want to continue to do for communities in North Carolina.”

Watch the Building Coastal Resilience video here.

Dan DiNicola is an award-winning science writer and digital content producer for North Carolina Sea Grant, the NC Water Resources Research Institute, and NC Space Grant.

Rebecca Jones directs communications for all three programs. The longtime writer and editor also served for years as a college professor and administrator.