One woman’s amazing effort to help coastal communities defend themselves from rising seas – The Providence Journal

Patricia Andreu| Guest columnist

Conley Zani likes to say she lives in a little Shangri-La. Her mystical piece of paradise otherwise known as Common Fence Point is a peninsula in Portsmouth that juts out into Narragansett Bay on the northernmost tip of Aquidneck Island. An unassuming road leads you under a small red bridge into the community of nearly 700 homes and panoramic views.

Conley and her family have lived in Common Fence Point since 2009. She loves it so much that she volunteers as the president of the neighborhoods improvement association and even teaches Zumba at the community center. In recent years, Conleys volunteer work has taken on an environmental dimension, as she and a group of neighbors work to preserve and protect their coastal oasis.

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Our number-one issue is how can we be resilient, said Conley, whose house sits just 15 feet above sea level. Its a wonderful thing in the summer with the water access. But, when these hurricanes come through, were the ones going underwater.

Since 2019, the Common Fence Point Association has been a committed partner of Pam Rubinoff of the Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island. Pam is known as the coastal resiliency guru. For the last 25 years, she has been laser-focused on educating constituencies across the state (and around the globe) on the impacts of climate change and sea level rise, empowering them to protect their own communities.

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A key thing for me has been linking the science with the policy, the tools with the people, said Pam.

The data can feel quite ominous. The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council projects that sea levels for our state will rise by a foot, to 1.6 feet over the next 30 years. (By comparison, local sea levels rose by a foot over the last 100 years). And, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that high tide flood days have increased by up to 150% in the Northeast since the year 2000.

But when it comes to protecting Rhode Islands 400 miles of coastline and inland areas prone to flooding one size definitely does not fit all.

When youre talking about solutions, you really have to balance the social, environmental and economic issues, said Pam. I do not go into a community and say, Here are your solutions. I help facilitate a conversation so they can start to identify what are the best options. I help them coordinate amongst themselves and then collaborate.

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At Common Fence Point, that meant identifying leaders, like Conley, who would champion resiliency efforts and spread the word to the rest of the neighborhood. With Pams help, theyve applied for grants to plant native grasses on specific sites to stabilize the shoreline and reduce erosion. The grasses also help filter stormwater runoff into the Bay.

Pam was also instrumental in helping the community create "preparedness kits" full of educational materials, emergency checklists, flashlights and other items so residents can be ready to act fast in the event of a major storm or massive flood. They have distributed about 180 kits so far.

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Pam is trying to set us up for success, said Conley. Shes so good at sharing knowledge and empowering communities at being resilient and sustaining these best practices. Shes not coming in and doing it for us. She's trying to create leaders here on the ground to take on this work and get excited about it.

From the micro to the macro, Pams talent lies in translating scientific data into actionable items. In 2007, she and her colleagues were instrumental in establishing Rhode Islands policy on sea level rise. By bringing the latest research on climate change and its impact on coastal areas to state leaders, they were able to provide guidance in the creation of a policy framework to address those issues.

She has really deep expertise in all of these interdisciplinary areas, said Austin Becker, chair of the Department of Marine Affairs at URI. She can talk to the oceanographers. She can talk to the city planners. She can talk to the public in a meeting. She can talk to the social scientists in their own language. Thats a really important skill to have for somebody whos dealing with really complex issues.

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Austin adds that his onetime mentor is also a terrific convener of people and an excellent listener. She helps different members of the community voice their concerns and their priorities so that those can be effectively considered in the development of policy and planning.

Raising awareness about the increase in intensity and frequency of storms and extreme high tides led to the 2015 launch of MyCoast: Rhode Island, a program in which volunteers submit photos and reports of flooding and the impacts of storms. Since its inception, hundreds of volunteers from across the state have submitted more than 2,200 pictures and 2,100 reports of damage.

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Were using it as an expanding tool to get neighborhoods and businesses more engaged in whats going on, she said. The idea is not to give them fear but awareness, so they can understand what they can begin to do.

While Pam has worked extensively with communities from South County to East Bay, shes also focused on the states largest city, Providence.

Our capital city is very vulnerable, she said. City government was already working on several projects, but business and civic leaders werent at the table. In order to build a more resilient Providence, she knew these key stakeholders had to get involved. In 2019, Pam and Curt Spalding from Brown University organized a forum where they laid out the citys vulnerabilities. Prominent developer Arnold "Buff " Chace Jr. was among the attendees.

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It was an eye-opener, he said. Buff clearly remembered the devastation that followed Hurricane Carol in 1954. His fathers hotel had been flooded. A decade later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier, which is still used to protect the city from hurricanes and extreme high tides. But, with rising sea levels, it may not be enough.

The problem isnt going away, he said. So, are we going to be prepared, or arent we? If the hurricane barrier fails, what's the cost?

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Soon after the forum, Buff became a founding member of the Providence Resilience Partnership. Pam co-wrote the 127-page Towards a Resilient Providence report for the group, outlining historical data and how climate change projections could affectdifferent parts of the city. Pams leadership has been an important component in getting us this far, he said.

Buff plans to transition from his work as managing partner of Cornish Associates to focusfull-time on these issues.

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Its about trying to help the community survive and thrive," he said. "With the threat confronting us, how can we meet the threat and improve? How can we increase dialogue? Environment, social justice, equity. I look at it as an opportunity to deal with those issues and solve them. You have to look at it holistically.

This is just another example of how Pams approach of outreach and education is effective at creating practical, long-term strategies to help communities weather the effects of climate change.

Taking the time to build your capacity people, financial and policy framework is really important, she said. Because, after a storm, when youre rebuilding, you have to have things in place so you can do things right.

Pams childhood in Baltimore, Maryland, and on New Yorks Long Island Sound fostered her love of the ocean and shores. In 1976, she became one of four women in the coastal engineering program at the University of Delaware. Years later she received her master's degree at URI in marine affairs. (I did my thesis on sea level rise in southern Rhode Island. You see a theme, she said with a chuckle.)

In between she worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New England and joined the Peace Corps in 1982. She wanted to see the world and get more hands-on experience. Pam spent 2years as a water resource engineer in Thailand.

It was a huge lightbulb moment for me, she remembered. It was so humbling. I learned a tremendous amount, not only from my Thai colleagues but from the villagers.

Thats when she knew that, rather than sit behind a desk, she would dedicate her life to linking the technical aspects with community needs.

On her first day of work at the Coastal Resources Center, she was on a plane to Ecuador. Because of the centers long-standing partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Pam spent years traveling around the world assisting local communities with their resiliency efforts. She even learned Spanish along the way.

Now shes focused fully on the Ocean State.

I think were going slow, but were still moving in a positive direction, she said. I get frustrated a little, because this all takes very long. But when you look at it, and you look at the trajectory, weve come a long way in 15 years.

With her eye keenly set on the future, Pam continues to engage and empower communities to build a more resilient state.

She is a champion for people who live on the coast, who love the coast, who visit the coast, said Austin. We need more Pams to help us figure out how to get through this.

Patricia Andreu, a freelance journalist living in Providence, writes Women In Action, a periodic column. Reach her at WomenInActionRI@outlook.com and follow her on Twitter: @ri_women.

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One woman's amazing effort to help coastal communities defend themselves from rising seas - The Providence Journal