PROJECT PORTAL
Collaborative Planning for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study for Exeter
The project undertook a collaborative planning effort to develop an integrated climate change adaptation plan for a land area exhibiting a range of land uses and location on a major tributary to the Great Bay Estuary. While the focus is on climate change, the project also considered the exacerbation, and remedies, for related challenges of stormwater, nonpoint source pollution, land use/development and the protection and restoration of habitat (marshes and fisheries habitat). The case study area is the Town of Exeter within the Exeter/Squamscott River Basin, which includes most of the town’s area just upstream of Great Bay. However, because portions of other towns share the watershed, their contributions to the targeted impacts on the river system were assessed to provide a comprehensive analysis the will yield an integrated management strategy. Benefits include an adaptation strategy for Exeter that can be incorporated into zoning ordinances, and site regulations that benefits not only the town but also Great Bay, and serve as a transferable model for collaborative and integrated adaptation planning.