Municipal Climate Adaptation Guidance

The following “tool box” of materials provides practical advice for municipalities to find resilience in the face of our changing climate and rising sea levels.

These documents explain how to identify threats to community resources, and how to respond to those threats by integrating climate adaptation measures into existing local policies, practices and ordinances.  Each of the ten documents in the series addresses a different area of municipal responsibility:

Municipal Climate Adaptation Guidance Series

Download a PDF of a presentation on these Guidance documents here (7.5MB PDF). It guides you through all of the subject matter and provides links directly to each of the Guidance Documents below (in the upper left corner of the slide) and provides several other links to offsite resources.

1.  Overview
2.  Transportation
3.  StreamSmart Crossings
4.  Wastewater Infrastructure
5.  Drinking Water
6.  Storm Water
7.  Comprehensive Planning
8.  Shoreland Zoning Ordinance
9.  Site Plan Review Ordinance
10. Subdivision Ordinance

Maine Flood Resilience Checklist

In addition to the Guidance documents above municipalities can examine their own circumstances relative to the Maine Flood Resilience Checklist, a simple and practical self-assessment tool designed to assist communities evaluate how well positioned they are to prepare for, respond to, and recover from flooding events and sea level rise. It provides an integrated framework for examining local flood risk, assessing vulnerability of the natural, built, and social environments, and identifying specific opportunities, actions, and strategies to enhance community flood resilience. For more information about the Checklist, please contact the Maine Geological Survey or the Maine Municipal Planning Assistance Program. See the Checklist Overview for a quick introduction to the Checklist.

Planning Board Adaptation Tools

The Municipal Planning Assistance Program at DACF has also prepared a Maine Climate Change Worksheet to assist Planning Boards with brainstorming response that are unique to their circumstances.