Resilience Assessment: Cape Cod National Seashore

Hotchkiss, Eliza; Kandt, Alicen; Holm, Alison; McKean, Lauren; Norton, Shawn

Since 2016, the National Park Service (NPS) has been assessing the vulnerability of coastal parks to coastal hazards and identifying opportunities to enhance operational resilience across parks. Coastal parks are affected by sea level rise, storm surge, and coastal flooding, which have caused operational interruptions. NPS partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2019 to develop resilience plans at specific high-risk coastal parks. The purpose of this project was to further asses the vulnerability of coastal park infrastructure specific to energy, communications, transportation, and water systems, for improved future operational resilience at those parks and to consider applications for lessons learned across the NPS portfolio. Leveraging existing vulnerability assessments and past renewable energy analyses, NREL completed resilience plans at specific high-risk pilot parks to serve as a foundation for more comprehensive assessments and resilience planning activities. This assessment is a summary of the efforts at Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS). It outlines the methodology used and the results of the analysis, with the intention of serving as a case study for other parks interested in replicating the process. The resilience assessment methodology employed at CCNS ——that could be adapted at other parks — was designed around four primary steps: compiling and assessing baseline information; identifying and scoring hazards, threats, and vulnerabilities; analyzing risks based on potential impact and likelihood; and developing and prioritizing mitigation actions and next steps. A risk matrix was developed to map relationships between hazards, threats, and vulnerabilities and provide a risk score for each hazard- or threat-vulnerability combination. The risk matrix is a visual representation of site risk designed to foster deeper discussion with park staff and highlight high-priority vulnerabilities to target with mitigation solutions. The risk matrix was used to understand the areas of greatest concern at CCNS and brainstorm potential solutions. Solutions incorporate a range of implementation levels (e.g., easy to difficult), a range of costs to implement (e.g., lower cost to higher capital costs), and address risks through mitigation solutions or holistic resilience solutions. Solutions that simultaneously address multiple related vulnerabilities, those that are easy to implement, and those that address risks that are likely to occur and significantly impact CCNS’s infrastructure or operations are included.