Collaborative Governance/ Stakeholders and Partnerships
“The Resilient Woods Hole project was developed by the community for the community.“ Falmouth Sustainability Director
Collaborative Governance is when decisions are made and implemented by a cooperative group of local partnerships that know and understand the needs of the cultures and social groups involved and they actively participate in policy making. The group embraces this form of problem solving.
One of the initiatives to protect Falmouth from climate change and drinking water contamination is run by a group called, Resilient Woods Hole. This group works cooperatively with many local stakeholders including the business owners and the local Falmouth community.
Maintaining the character of the village is very important to the people who live here. And many have local businesses and have invested in home ownership and want to preserve what they have. Involving them in the process gives them a voice.
Residents want decisions to reflect their vision of their community and what the local research institution thinks is important may be different from what residents think.
“Making a plan requires conversations and compromise.” (S.D.)
The villagers want nature based solutions that use open spaces, keep existing ecosystems such as the marsh habitats but that might not always be possible, so engineers and other experts need to be part of the conversations.
“Success of this project depends on how much the community is willing to adapt and how far into the future they are willing to look“. (S.D.)
Leaders also engage the experts from the NOAA fisheries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Marine Biological Laboratory.They have major research centers located in Woods Hole and they too are invested in the future. However, they have more funding to protect their interests than local community members have to protect their homes. These companies are invested in protecting the ecosystems that they study. If they don’t invest in this resiliency project their research could be at risk, so they work to get more funding from the federal government.
“So, everyone wins if they work together.” ( S.D)
In addition, they collaborate with the wastewater department, town planner, floodplain manager, conservation commission along with community representatives from businesses and residential neighborhoods.
It is village wide planning to design concepts and plans for infrastructure changes to roadways, sea walls and electricity lines and drinking water as well as for natural land forms and current waterways and flood paths.
They work together to identify solutions to climate impacts and to analyze data related to storm surge, wastewater, drinking water, marine pollution, habitat loss and storm resistance.
The group ran 12 interview sessions of these stakeholders to ask them their direct experiences with flooding, the assets they need to protect, their investment in the town’s sustainability, and to find out how they can best rely on each other for support. They also focus on maintaining the historic character of the city while implementing change and potentially relocating businesses. It is important to be able to make changes without interfering in money generated by tourism or adding to traffic and congestion. They also want to communicate the need to prepare in advance for a weather related flooding event.
Resilient Woods Hole also sent out public surveys to its residents. 66% say they have been impacted by flooding and sea level rise and most said they were in favor of nature based solutions that keep open spaces and that were Eco friendly to the habitats involved.
Falmouth partnered with a company called McClennen & Fish to look at local laws to see if they are helping or impeding climate action.