Climate Adaptation Planning in Coastal Alaska Communities

This report authored by Alaska Sea Grant shines a light on the challenges remote communities
face in taking advantage of resources for addressing environmental threats caused by a rapidly warming Arctic. It provides insight and details regarding climate adaptation planning across the
state and recommendations for federal funding agencies, community planners, nonprofits, and
others to help them get assistance to all communities in need.

Communities across Alaska are experiencing an array of climate change impacts, from
permafrost degradation and erosion in Western Alaska to landslides in Southeast Alaska.
According to the Denali Commission’s Statewide Threat Assessment: Identification of Threats
from Erosion, Flooding, and Thawing Permafrost in Remote Alaska Communities, 29 of 187
communities are severely threatened by erosion, 38 by flooding, and 35 by permafrost thaw. This
year, a report by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Unmet Needs of Environmentally
Threatened Alaska Native Villages, revealed an annual funding gap of $80 million over the next
decade to mitigate environmental threats to infrastructure.

Over the past several years, there has been a substantial increase of available funding for climate
adaptation planning, stimulating work at the region and community levels. However, this
funding is not making its way to some of the communities that need it most. Not all small or
remote communities have the human capacity, expertise, time, and other resources to develop
and implement such plans. Getting under-resourced communities the assistance they need
requires better understanding the specific obstacles they face. Alaska Sea Grant State Fellow
Sean Kelly, under the supervision of Alaska Sea Grant’s coastal community resilience specialist,
Davin Holen, investigated barriers to climate adaptation planning at the region and community
levels. Kelly reviewed Alaska climate action plans, climate adaptation plans and assessments,
and associated publications, reports, and articles. Further, Kelly conducted interviews with
agencies, researchers, regional Tribal organizations, community planners, and other interested
parties to gather insight on the challenges communities face in developing and implementing
plans. The findings are now available in the report Climate Adaptation Planning in Coastal
Alaska Communities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Equity Considerations. The report’s
findings are also visualized and summarized in an ArcGIS Story Map.