Change in the Chesapeake: Exploring Community Response and Adaptation to Rising Seas

Coastal communities are increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise as climate change intensifies. In addition to global mitigation strategies, local adaptation measures are a crucial element of climate solutions. Community science frameworks offer alternative ways of engaging non-professionals in local restoration and adaptation planning. Using analysis rooted in the fields of Environmental Justice and Feminist Science and Technology Studies, I focus on rural communities living along the Chesapeake Bay in Dorchester, Somerset, and Wicomico counties in Maryland; discuss past and present social, economic, and political conditions that shape the current situation; and explore the viability of adaptation facilitated through community science. Various public and private entities already have structures in place to facilitate community science and engagement. However, social and economic stress can act as a barrier to meaningful engagement and reduce motivation and feelings of empowerment. Understanding sea-level rise in social, economic, and political terms as much as in ecological terms is crucial to creating local, effective, and just adaptation plans.