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Sea Level Rise/Resilience

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Green Energy Tour Scheduled for August 12th. Visit your neighbors’ homes and talk to vendors about solar options, heat pumps and EVs.  Click here for details.

Sebago Technics

Sebago Technics with partner VCTO Labs, and in collaboration with the St. George Resiliency Committee, have conducted a study of sites at risk of flooding with rising tides. Sebago and VCTO Labs presented their work at a community gathering at the school earlier this month. Using drones and other advanced equipment, Sebago and VCTO Labs created 3D LiDAR models of the locations listed below.  LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology using lasers to develop incredibly detailed and accurate topographical models.  Check out these amazing models created using LiDAR technology:

More locations will be mapped soon: Rackliff Island Causeway, Turkey Cove Road, Drift Inn Road, Factory Road, Horse Point Road.

Note: The links take longer to load/explore with slower internet speeds. Look for the 'Three Lines' in the upper left corner of the viewer to open Display Options.  Detailed viewer help is available using the 'Question Mark' in the viewer lower left corner."

Click here for more images.

Please contact John Maltais (jrmaltais@gmail.com) for more information.

Rising Tides: Safe Roads, Working Waterfronts, Protected History

  • St. George is undertaking a unique engineering study to address flooding roads and impacts to the town’s historic places caused by rising seas. Focusing on ten sites, this project will help residents understand the challenges and visualize solutions. At the same time, St. George is helping to gather information on the important economic and community value of local fishing and aquaculture and how sea level rise and increasingly severe storms impact our working waterfronts. Planning now will save time and money later.
  • Rising Tides Project Description
  • Video Overview
  • Rising Tides Overview Slides
  • St. George Working Waterfronts Slides 

  • Round-table discussion was held at the Town Office on February 28th at 5 PM.   See Poster for details.

Resilience Newsletter February 2023

Introduction

Global warming will continue for the foreseeable future and we will have to deal with the consequences. Sea Level Rise (SLR) caused by the warming planet is a major problem. SLR causes flooding and erodes our coastlines resulting in the loss of real estate and eventually the inundation of infrastructure such as wells and roads. The Town is addressing this problem by forming a SLR ad hoc committee to investigate and propose solutions.

Useful Sea Level Rise Maps

Inundation Maps

Sebago Technics has created a series of Inundation Maps.  These maps show the projected impacts to the noted areas with increasing sea level rise, according to various future state models, as noted.

 

Ad hoc SLR Committee

Mission: “The ad hoc SLR committee is comprised of representatives of certain Town boards, committees and commissions as well as interested citizens, in order to explore SLR and related issues that pertain to the Town of St. George, the life of its residents, and the possible future impact on the infrastructure of the Town. It shall coordinate and share information with committees and commissions of the Town, as well as with appropriate county, regional, and state level organizations.”

Its first task was to organize a meeting of key Town members to evaluate the resilience and vulnerability of St. George to SLR.

Meeting Notes

Town Resilience/Vulnerability

The most important step for any town is to assess its strengths and weaknesses to the inevitable rise in sea level and associated storms and surges. The SLR Committee organized a special meeting to assess the vulnerability and resilience of the Town.

Checklist Meeting on Feb 29, 2020

Town officials and others met to complete a checklist developed by the State for assessing our resilience to SLR.

Click on links below for more information

Resilience Committee

After the RSL committee assessed the vulnerable areas for the Town they formed the St. George Resilience Committee supported by the Midcoast Council of Governments and other entities to recommend actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Some proposed actions are:

  • Detailed mapping of the coast and infrastructure: Sebago Technics 3-D modeling project.
  • Installing tidal gauges: Manual tide staffs at five Locations and state-of-the-art digital gauges (see Southern Island tide height).
  • Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations: Grant from Efficiency Maine and the Nature Conservancy for two outlets at the Library.
  • Solar electricity for the School: In progress.
  • Heat pumps for Town Office: Assessment in progress.

Data Collection and Assessment

In collaboration with the Knox County Emergency Management Agency the Town is developing applications for gathering information on vulnerable areas in the Town and giving Town residents and managers the tools to see how climate change has and can affect us in the future. 

Two applications are or will soon be available:

  1. SLR Maps
    1. Basic: See how SLR can affect your area. (Available now)
    2. Advanced: This is a data repository for anyone (e.g., Town Managers) who needs more detailed data for making assessments.
  2. Tide Tracker
    1. Basic: A tool for anyone to submit SL data to the Town.
    2. Advanced: A tool for “trained” volunteers to submit precise data that will be used not only by the Town but as part of the national database.