February 2022
Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts – 2021 Assessment Report: Wisconsin’s Changing Climate
By Caitlin Piotrowski, Coastal Resilience Project Assistant
Overview of the Report
The Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) has released their 2021 Assessment Report on Wisconsin’s Changing Climate. This report features new data since its last update in 2011. The report emphasizes the progression of climate change in individual sectors, and solutions to combat the change. The featured sectors include air, land, water, built environment, and people. The report is offered digitally and contains links to full interviews, stories, and working groups. These digital links offer easy access to additional information about topics and projects. This report emphasizes that Wisconsin can play a big role in reducing the impacts of climate change due to our vast natural lands that can store carbon.
Coastal Resilience
The Coastal Resilience working group is featured within the Built-Environment sector. Climate change is impacting wave sizes, water levels, and storm surges which impact the slope stability of the bluffs along the Great Lakes. The report offers potential solutions than can be enacted by city planners, resource managers, and residents. Some of the solutions highlighted by the Coastal Resilience group include the following:
- Conduct vulnerability assessments to identify locations that are at risk.
- Consider future as well as current conditions and avoid making decisions based solely on current conditions.
- Address root causes instead of temporary fixes.
- Relocate away from eroding shoreline and floodways when possible.
- Consider solutions that work with nature to protect the coast.
- Be aware of how one action may impact other coastal processes, causing long term effects.
- Engage the community and work together.
- Be proactive!
Check back in a few weeks to find a video recording of Adam Bechle’s Presentation on the Coastal Resilience Working group.
Read the full report here!
Looking for a Coastal Resilience snapshot? Check out the Coastal Resilience Working Group here.