Coastal Practitioner Surveys

• 2023 Survey

  
  
  USC Sea Grant, in partnership with the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California Santa Barbara, will administer the newest iteration of this survey in the winter of 2023. If you have not received the survey and are interested in participating, please contact Karina Alvarez at karinaa9@usc.edu.

  
  
  Partners: University of California, Santa Barbara (Ocean and Coastal Policy Center); California Ocean Protection Council (OPC); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office for Coastal Management; Juliette Hart, Pathways Climate Institute; Kristen Goodrich, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve  

  
  
  Collaborators: Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation (ARCCA); California; Coastal Commission; California Coastal Resilience Network; California Sea Grant; California State Parks; Cal Poly Humboldt; CivicWell; Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve; Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR); Morro Bay National Estuary Program; San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC); San Francisco Estuary Institute; San Francisco Estuary Partnership; San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative; San Mateo County, Office of Sustainability; Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program; Surfrider Foundation; Susanne Moser, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting

• 2018 Survey

  
  
  The 2016 study surveyed nearly 700 coastal professionals to assess how coastal communities are preparing for the impacts of climate change. Conducted by USC Sea Grant, U.S. Geological Survey, and Susanne Moser Consulting, this survey’s results provide insight across 10 years of shifting climate change and adaptation challenges, attitudes, barriers, actions, and training and funding needs in coastal California.

  This study was released as part of the State of California Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which is led by the California Natural Resources Agency and provides a statewide update to climate change science. The report was released on August 27, 2018. Additionally, USC Sea Grant, Dr. Moser, Laura Engeman (San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative), and Vijay Kasevan (Bay Area Regional Collaborative) presented 2016 survey findings at the California Adaptation Forum and reported results to California Ocean Protection Council and other state agencies.

  
  
  Key Findings: 

  • Sea-level rise has emerged as the dominant present-day coastal management concern across California. This is a notable shift among all types of survey respondents compared to 2011 survey results, when sea-level rise was mostly seen as a future coastal management challenge. 
  • Progress, barriers, and needs vary across regions. For example, sea-level change ranks as the highest concern in Northern California and the Bay Area; coastal and shoreline erosion is of greatest concern along the Central and San Diego coasts; and water quality concerns are seen as the greatest current challenge in Southern California.
  • There is also a notable shift in information needs: while coastal professionals’ dominant information needs focused on becoming more familiar with sea-level rise-related risks in 2011, the greatest needs now are options for solutions and how to implement them. 

  
  Download the Study: 

  • Growing Effort, Growing Challenge: Findings from the 2016 California Coastal Adaptation Needs Assessment (PDF)
  • Highlights from the 2016 California Coastal Adaptation Needs Assessment (PDF)

  
  Partners: Susanne Moser Research & Consulting; Bay Area Regional Collaborative; California Coastal Commission; California State Coastal Conservancy; California Ocean Protection Council; California Sea Grant; Coravai; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office for Coastal Management; San Francisco Estuary Partnership; San Mateo County, Office of Sustainability; San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative; The Nature Conservancy; Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve; University of California, Davis, Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy

• 2011 Survey

  
  
  This survey, led by Dr. Susanne C. Moser, USC Sea Grant, and a suite of 15 coastal CA partners, assessed the needs and barriers coastal communities have in planning for climate change, including appropriate trainings and technical assistance needed, and the best way to link communities to resources and tools already available. Key findings from the 2011 survey revealed levels of knowledge and concern about climate change impacts, challenges faced in adaptation planning, and information and training needed to support adaptation planning and implementation. The results spurred an infusion of state funding (grants from OPC, Coastal Conservancy, and Coastal Commission) in adaptation planning at municipal levels. In response, USC Sea Grant now leads several efforts to advance adaptation planning in Southern California, including Regional AdaptLA and the Southern California Coastal Impacts Project.

  
  
  Key Findings:

  
  
  Current Coastal Management Challenges:

  • Current coastal management challenges are worsening.
  • Top management challenges will be exacerbated by climate change.
  • Current management challenges make adaptation planning and decision-making difficult.

  Climate Change Concerns, Knowledge, and Actions:

  • Attitudes and knowledge about climate change are strongly supportive of adaptation action.
  • Attention to adaptation has increased markedly over the past five years.
  • Adaptation planning and implementation is still in the very early stages.
  • There is limited familiarity with innovative adaptation approaches.

  Information, Technical Assistance, and Training Needs:

  • Organizational missions, job responsibilities, and legal requirements shape common information use.
  • Ease of access to information is the overriding determinant of information use.
  • Specific information needs differ by professional group.
  • Critical opportunities exist to meet coastal professionals' information, technical assistance, and training needs

  
  Download the Study:

  • Full Study
  • Executive Summary
  • Southern CA Counties Results
  • Central CA Counties Results
  • Bay Area/Delta Counties Results
  • Northern CA Counties Results

• 2007 Survey

  
  This survey was conducted by Dr. Susanne C. Moser and John Tribbia at the National Center for Atmospheric Research for the California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program. 

  
  
  Download the Study:

  • Full Study