Published by the Southwestern Wisconsin Coastal Resilience

Newark, NY, January 6, 2020 - Southwestern Wisconsin Coastal Resilience has named New York’s Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Index (CRI), a self-assessment tool that was developed by the New York Sea Grant, its Resource of the Month for January 2020.

The CRI brings community leaders together and provides them with a simple method for identifying areas in which their community can be more resilient to coastal hazards such as coastal flooding and weather disasters. 

The CRI uses a “yes” or “no” question format to help community leaders investigate vulnerabilities across six sectors: critical facilities and infrastructure, transportation issues, community plans and agreements, mitigation measures, business plans, and social systems. 

This index can be completed using maps generated by the New York Sea Grant Institute in addition to other readily available information from existing sources within the community. After completing the self-assessment, a Resilience Index can be calculated which is an indicator of the community’s ability to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure after a disaster. 

The self-assessment tool is available online and can be downloaded for free.

Audience & Decision Support

This booklet is designed to help community leaders as well as experienced local planners, engineers, code enforcement officers, floodplain managers or administrators, and other relevant persons to assess coastal resilience issues that should be addressed in the community and determine where resources should be allocated. 

While the CRI focuses on coastal flooding and storms, it can be adapted to fit the needs of Lake Michigan coastal communities by including hazards such as coastal erosion. 

The step-by-step format helps community leaders assess six components of coastal resiliency to determine areas where resiliency to coastal hazards can be improved and to prioritize funding and projects. 

The CRI does not replace a detailed study, rather it encourages the community to seek further consultation on areas identified as being able to be more resilient. 



More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.