Press Release
Mayor Gavin Buckley
Public Information Office
160 Duke of Gloucester Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Mitchelle Stephenson, 410-972-7724 or mwstephenson@annapolis.gov
Climate Researchers Host Annual Meeting in Annapolis
Seek Input from City, County, and State Stakeholders
Annapolis, MD (March 15, 2019) – On Monday, March 11, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Army Corps of Engineers, and the United States Naval Academy met with officials from the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to discuss how to make climate science research relevant to the stakeholders and local officials who implement projects and policies to combat sea level rise. Mayor Gavin Buckley delivered the opening remarks to the group with a request to make the language of climate change accessible to all residents.
“Annapolis is ground zero for coastal flooding,” said Roberta Laynor, Chief of Historic Preservation for the City of Annapolis. “I was so impressed that they included our team in order to create actionable science for the end user.”
City of Annapolis Engineer Lisa Grieco presented the City’s five-year, $12 million flood mitigation plan to the group to show how the City is incorporating the data to inform the project’s design.
The meeting took place at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation facility in Annapolis. The scientists from the federal government and academia, including the University of Maryland, meet quarterly in different parts of the country to improve regional sea level projections. They look at everything from ice melt to extreme weather events.
Jacqueline Guild, Director of the Office of Environmental Policy for the City of Annapolis, said that she found the gathering to be very useful in learning about cutting-edge information on sea level rise. “This information changes rapidly, depending on where you are located. I thought it was useful for the NASA scientists studying this issue to reach out to the people who implement environmental resiliency measures.”
Guild said that she had never seen an interactive meeting quite like the one held in Annapolis on Monday.
“There have been panels and forums where you come to hear scientists talk about climate change and sea level rise. The difference here is about dedicating a day for a back-and-forth with local end users,” she said. They asked us, “what kinds of data and science do we need to know to effectively do our jobs?
“It’s useful and user-friendly science,” Laynor added.
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