Deal Island
Peninsula
Partnership
A network to support communities
and coastal environments
in the midst of change
Building resilience through collaboration
Goals and Activities
The goal of the Deal Island Peninsula Partnership (DIPP) is to reduce the vulnerabilities of the Deal Island Peninsula area to the impacts of flooding, erosion, storm surge, changing sea levels, and social changes by creating partnerships between residents, government decision-makers & staff, researchers, and NGO representatives. Through collaboration, DIPP seeks to build a community of stakeholders to pool local and scientific knowledge, resources, and skills to enhance support for resilience planning and implementation on the Deal Island Peninsula.
Activities
Since in 2012, the Deal Island Peninsula Partnership has been supported by a mix of federal, state, and university funding promoting our objectives to build resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change. Our projects include:
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1) The Deal Island Marsh and Community Project | Funder: NOAA NERRS Science Collaborative, 2012-2015
This project carried out three collaborative research projects on marsh health, cultural heritage, and flooding and erosion impacts. These CRPs provided a platform for integrating and testing collaborative science and learning approaches. It also supported accompanying research to better understand collaborative science and collaborative learning approaches and outcomes. This project helped initiate the formation of the DIPP stakeholder network.
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2) The Integrated Coastal Resiliency Assessment | Funder: Maryland Sea Grant, 2016-2018
The Integrated Coastal Resiliency Assessment (ICRA) built off of the Deal Island Marsh and Community Project to integrate geospatial and experiential knowledge in assessing the resilience of the Peninsula to current and future threats. The project was carried out through three phases to 1) collaboratively identified focus areas, 2) conduct collaborative field assessments of vulnerabilities in those focus area, and 3) prioritize issue and develop strategies for adaptation implementation. The project led to two funded resiliency projects to address shoreline erosion and ditch flooding concerns.
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3) Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience | Funder: NOAA Coastal & Ocean Climate Applications, 2017-2019
Churches - as key social institutions in rural areas - play an important role in helping to support rural communities in times of need. Church leaders have been important stakeholders in DIPP's activities to date, and integral to our efforts to share information and engage community members. The Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience project sought to further explore how collaborative approaches could be used to improved networks between churches and government in order to develop better adaptation support in unincorporated, rural areas. It engaged rural church leaders and government staff in Dorchester, Wicomico, and Somerset Counties, as well as key NGO and academic partners, and has helped develop important connections to support participating rural communities in addressing their environmental concerns, including marsh migration and roadway flooding.