Bowdoin College’s Eileen Johnson will be collaborating with the Rockland-based Island Institute to help Maine’s 120 coastal and island communities cope with battering storm surges and rising sea levels. Johnson is an environmental lecturer and Environmental Studies program manager, and has worked with communities in the midcoast on a range of projects that examine approaches for building resilience to sea level rise and storms.
This latest effort to mitigate climate-induced disasters is being funded by a $240,000 grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This grant, awarded to the Island Institute, is part of a $3.2 million pot recently given to almost a dozen coastal organizations, from Alaska to Florida and Maine, to help seaside towns better prepare for coastal flooding.