Engaging Residents in Policy and Planning for Sea Level Rise: Application of the Action-Oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) Framework

This chapter describes the application of the Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) framework for communicating with and engaging both residents and community stakeholders in their localities’ efforts to prepare for and to respond to flooding and sea level rise. The application of ASERT incorporates communication, education/learning, and gamification elements that can be embedded into community meetings. We describe the way in which ASERT community meetings are designed (1) to provide an inclusive and engaging process that will allow residents to participate in their city’s resilience efforts; (2) to provide information about resilience in an environment that encourages social learning, including curiosity and reflection, to promote behavioral change that will result in improved resilience and public support for resilience solutions; and (3) to allow residents to offer real-time perceptions of risk to, and feedback about, resilience solutions in their communities and/or cities. This chapter briefly discusses the ASERT framework, illustrates its application (using two examples from Virginia Beach, Virginia), describes the use of gamification in the community meetings, and provides lessons learned regarding communication and stakeholder engagement efforts targeted at building resilience in coastal communities