This half-day (4-hour) management-level course aims to build on the NDPTC coastal hazards curriculum (AWR-379 Coastal Hazards Awareness & PER-376 Coastal Hazard & Vulnerability Assessment Tools), providing key information for advanced practitioners involved in planning for coastal hazards and climate change.  The course will focus on the planning aspect of coastal hazards, covering coastal hazards planning principles, coastal planning and management context, and planning strategies that can be employed to reduce hazard risk and increase resilience in coastal communities.  The course content will aim to bridge concepts related to climate adaptation, hazard mitigation and coastal management, highlighting the mutual objectives and ways to achieve them through planning.

This training is intended to provide decision-makers and planners with the information needed to create and align plans that reduce vulnerability to coastal hazards and climate change, incorporate climate information, integrate participatory planning processes, consider the socio-ecological interactions at the land-sea interface, and manage the uncertainty of climate impacts.

The target audience for this course is planning professionals involved in coastal hazards and climate adaptation planning. This includes hazard mitigation planners, urban planners, climate change specialists, government officials and coastal managers.  Disciplines may include those from:

• Education
• Emergency Management
• Government Administrative
• Public Works
• Security and Safety         

At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to:

• Describe the principles of coastal adaptation
• Explain the coastal management and policy frameworks that influence coastal planning
• Apply planning strategies to adapt to coastal hazards

This course builds upon AWR-379 Coastal Hazards Awareness and PER-376 Coastal Hazard & Vulnerability Assessment Tools. These courses are not pre-requisites but participants are encouraged to take these or one of the following courses prior to this course:  AWR-228 Community Resilience or AWR-362 Flooding Hazards. In lieu of completing these courses, participants may have a working knowledge of the fundamentals of natural hazards and planning in coastal areas,

• Pre-test to be completed PRIOR to the course. Assists to assess familiarity with the course subject material.
• Post test to be completed at completion of course. To receive a FEMA issued Certificate of Completion, a post test score of at least 70% must be obtained.