Interim Report on Capacity Building and Solutions Driven Research

This presentation reports on interim findings from research on community capacity conducted as part of the Chesapeake Solutions Driven Research project with the community of Crisfield, Maryland. It describes the activities undertaken to support the community's capacity for addressing coastal resilience issues and evaluate the impact of the SDR project, including research co-production, a community capacity assessment, the Crisfield Resilience Academy, an asset relocation analysis, and an oral history project. Preliminarily we find that the SDR project has helped increase the understanding of city officials of Nature-Based Solutions and supported their ability to identify and apply for funding opportunities to implement projects, expanded the networks that city officials and community members have to draw on for support in activities to increase resilience, and increased community members’ awareness and  knowledge of, and involvement, in resilience strategies.

Impact/Purpose

Resilience to flooding is an increasing challenge for coastal communities. This presentation describes the methods and preliminary findings from a number of research activities undertaken as part of an Office of Research and Development (ORD) Solutions Driven Research (SDR) project to assist a small coastal community with identifying Nature-Based Solutions to protect from storm related flooding. This research investigates and supports community capacity for dealing with coastal flooding through a number of approaches: design of research co-production strategies, an assessment of community capacity, a public education and leadership program, an asset relocation analysis, an oral history project, and an evaluation of the project impacts. The research contributes to understanding of and approaches for supporting community adaptive capacity and would be of interest to researchers and practitioners working on community engaged coastal resilience projects. 

Citation

Eisenhauer, E., C. May, J. Hartley, A. Sullivan, K. Buck, AND R. Kashuba. Interim Report on Capacity Building and Solutions Driven Research. Monthly meeting with City of Crisfield, Washington, DC, May 15, 2025.