Coastal Processes

The Coastal Processes Extension agents provide technical assistance to the communities of Barnstable County on a variety of coastal land protection and management issues. This is accomplished through site visits, giving formal and informal presentations to regulatory, business, and community groups, and planning and conducting seminars, workshops, and meetings.

The Coastal Processes extension agent also conducts applied research on coastal resource issues and provides this information to user groups, develops and implements interdisciplinary community-focused research and extension projects, and assists local grant proposal efforts to fund these projects. Many of these research projects are developed into fact sheets, bulletins, and publications and are distributed to marine industries, municipalities, individuals, and agencies.

Floodplain Management

Floodplain management technical assistance helps towns make decisions about how to most appropriately manage their floodplains in the face of climate change and economic pressure, helps residents and businesses understand their flood risk and how to mitigate that risk, helps improve enforcement of existing regulations, and helps improve resiliency through training and accessibility for questions.

Woods Hole Sea Grant also provides guidance and assistance to towns with participating in the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System (CRS), which provides discounts to towns for improving coastal resiliency.  The CRS coordinator helps municipal staff to assemble the required information for the CRS program application and continued assistance and advice to maintain and expand participation in the program.

» Learn more about the CRS

Our Programs

Technical Assistance

Extension agents provide technical assistance to coastal managers, municipalities and property owners on the following topics and issues:

» Shoreline change

» Erosion control alternatives

» Coastal landform delineation

» Potential effects of various human activities on coastal landforms

» Beach and dune restoration and stabilization techniques

» Coastal landscaping

» Implementation of the Wetlands Protection Act

» Coastal hazards and hazard mitigation analyses

» Sea level rise

» Storm surge

» Coastal floodplains

» Floodplain building and zoning regulations

» Flood insurance

» Elevation certificates

» Other coastal resources management issues

Coastal Processes Site Visits

Site visits generally address site-specific coastal processes or coastal hazards-related issues. Site visits are followed up with a written technical alternatives analysis. In the last ten years over 250 site visits have been conducted and over 7,000 people have attended presentations about coastal processes.