Coastal Climate Resilience by Megan Sweeney

Sand Erosion

mcs351 — 2025-09-10 18:54:28 UTC

The Jersey Shore sand erosion was interesting to read about as it shows the impacts climate has and how we need funding to help with the resilience project.

Transdisciplinary Studies

mcs351 — 2025-09-10 18:58:09 UTC

Coming together of multiple groups to work on a project in a community.

Working Together Takes Time

mcs351 — 2025-09-10 19:00:06 UTC

It takes a lot of time to have many people bring in ideas from different backgrounds and create one plan of action.

Climate Resilience

mcs351 — 2025-09-10 19:03:47 UTC

Climate resilience is using knowledge about the changes in the climate to help prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate disasters.

Beach Erosion

mcs351 — 2025-09-17 20:07:41 UTC

This process explains how we get the erosion from the article last week.

Holgate After Sandy

mcs351 — 2025-09-17 20:11:35 UTC

From our PowerPoint discussion this photo stood out to me after seeing the original and how badly the storm affected areas not being helped. It shows how human resilience has helped the more developed area in the back. Great image of how important coastal resilience is and how great the impacts are.

Sea Level Rise Visual

mcs351 — 2025-09-20 20:03:03 UTC

These visuals that map how communities will look with sea level rise were really impactful and was great to show to people who don't understand numbers well.

Who's at Risk

mcs351 — 2025-09-20 20:05:56 UTC

Everyone is at risk and this graphic really visualized that for me.

Over 18 Inches of Sea Level Rise in NJ

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:28:21 UTC

When Amanda asked us how much sea level rose in the past century, I thought it was under a foot. To hear how much it has increased really stresses her points about taking climate action and how important resilience education really is.

Rutgers Position in Climate

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:32:25 UTC

Angie's talk was so interesting because I did not know about this whole office we have and her statements on making climate a priority by making them apart of other things was so amazing and I thought that was a brilliant way of getting her projects done in a manner that matters to the university stakeholders.

What Could of Been

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:34:07 UTC

Angie mentioning that Rutgers could of had Disneyland's monorail is so interesting and I wish we had it honestly.

RCEI

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:37:51 UTC

Marjorie's talk about RCEI was interesting because I knew very little about it. What was awesome to hear was the amount of tools and resources for the Rutgers community and especially graduate students. Also I did not know Tony was a leader for this and I will be mentioning it next time I see him (tomorrow).

MyCoast NJ App

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:39:12 UTC

This is so cool and great way for beach communities to help with research!

Note About Speakers

mcs351 — 2025-09-24 17:41:33 UTC

All 3 speakers were super informative and had a lot of experience in their area of climate resilience. It was great hearing from them!

Ocean Energy

mcs351 — 2025-10-01 14:48:50 UTC

Zach's presentation on ocean energy was really great because I never thought of ocean energy as being a source of renewable energy. He presented the information really well and was very knowledgeable on the subject. It was interesting to hear all the different ways we can get ocean energy and the pros and cons of it. 60% of fossil fuels used in the US currently and ocean energy could be that new 60%!

Urban Heat Islands

mcs351 — 2025-10-01 15:10:16 UTC

Steph's presentation on UHI was great. I have seen parts of it before and every time she adds more and more. I'm so excited to see this project come to light and hopefully she can get more data stations setup soon!

Environmental DNA

mcs351 — 2025-10-01 15:35:08 UTC

Isabelle's presentation about EDNA was crazy detailed and super interesting. She thought of everything in this project and she already has started collecting the cores for her research. This was something I have never heard of before and it was so cool to learn about.

Mapping Projects

mcs351 — 2025-10-01 16:01:37 UTC

I liked Joe's presentation about his many projects from his planning courses. It taught me a lot about thinking about spaces we live in more and I liked that he did that because it he didn't have a thesis. I might do something similar since I also don't have a thesis project.

Chris Testa's Talk

mcs351 — 2025-10-08 19:12:13 UTC

I wanted to just write an overall feeling about Chris's talk. I thought he was so informative, like he would know everything from the top of his head. He also seemed like a wonderful guy and a great resource for the future. I appreciated him coming in to speak with us!

Why do we have homes in flood zones?

mcs351 — 2025-10-08 19:13:58 UTC

WOW, I did not realize how many homes have been built in flood prone areas. I know why these homes were built after Chris explained it but I think it's crazy that we have so many people in danger of sea-level rise. This just further proves how important resilience is to tackle these issues.

Buying Out Homes

mcs351 — 2025-10-08 19:17:00 UTC

Something Chris mentioned a few times was the fact that his office can buy out homes so they is demolish them if they are in high risk areas. this was very interesting to me as I have never heard of this occurring before. I think it's a good thing that they are trying to move people out since it is so hard for them to stop sea-level rise. They just try to help the people who are in the worst areas.

The Public & The Economy

mcs351 — 2025-10-08 19:19:35 UTC

The public does play such an important role into making changes for climate resilience and emergency planning. Him explaining how the public perception is often times blaming something is very true. It's hard to convince people about climate changes in my field. Another interesting point he made was the economic problems involving planning which definitely do play a huge role in resilience and management.

NJDEP

mcs351 — 2025-10-15 18:29:35 UTC

Nick and Natlay's talk was super interesting. Since I don't live in NJ, I never really knew about NJDEP and what they do and hearing their presentations and their extensive backgrounds gave a lot of great insight to what they do.

Federal Funding

mcs351 — 2025-10-15 18:31:21 UTC

Like with the NJOEM, the NJDEP gets a lot of their funding from the federal government. With funding being cut it's getting harder for them to keep working on the residence projects they have which was upsetting to hear about. However I hope maybe with the new governor, they can fight to get funding and continue the work they do.

Blue Acres

mcs351 — 2025-10-15 18:33:27 UTC

I didn't realize the Blue Acres program was under NJDEP. I remember Chris talking about his department also buying out homes in risk areas and it just goes to show how interconnected everything in the state it. it also further proves the point that you need many different people to get one project done.

Resilience by Area

mcs351 — 2025-10-15 18:35:21 UTC

Something I took note of during their talk was when they spoke about areas having their own resilience plans. This made a lot of sense to me as we have discussed how resilience will look very different for different stakeholders and communities. I think it's great they realize that and have separate plans.

Weather Models

mcs351 — 2025-10-22 14:41:28 UTC

Alex's presentation on weather model bias was very informative and he presented well that the jargon he used was well explained. I myself know quite a bit on this topic so I didn't really learn much news but he did present it in a great way for the rest of the class who may not be as familiar to understand.

My Own Presentation

mcs351 — 2025-10-22 14:42:04 UTC

I wanted to reflect on my own presentation, I think it went well. People seemed engaged and I enjoyed teaching people about what I do and how many smart and talented people I work with and that cable news can be informative and scientific.

Red Hill Oil Spill

mcs351 — 2025-10-22 15:32:48 UTC

Jessica's presentation was so informative. She did a great job of fully explaining the project and it was so cool to hear that one of my classmates worked on such an important thing. I never heard about this incident before either so I am glad she taught me something new!

Black Geographies

mcs351 — 2025-10-22 15:56:09 UTC

Nyla's presentation on black communities and disaster management was so great. I have taken geography courses before that talk about the language we use to describe different types of communities and her thoughtfulness on that was amazing. I can't wait to see how her project turns out in the future!

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

mcs351 — 2025-10-29 14:40:55 UTC

I thought it was really interesting to hear about the partnership. I think it's amazing that people volunteer their time for something so important. I never knew about this but its nice to see that many land areas have these types of programs to help maintain the area.

Tidal Wetland Monitoring

mcs351 — 2025-10-29 14:49:48 UTC

Martha spoke about the wetland motioning and I thought it was an interesting process to get all the data from the wetlands to help make proper resilience plans. Station monitoring doesn't occur often but is important to continue getting data from wetlands.

Wetlands are Important

mcs351 — 2025-10-29 19:05:21 UTC

Wetlands are so important. Martha spoke a lot about how wetlands can help coastal communities especially during flooding periods. They are also crucial for wildlife and plant growth. I never write knew how important they were and Martha gave such good information about them.

Martha's Talk

mcs351 — 2025-10-29 19:07:36 UTC

Like the other talks I just wanted to write my initial feels about Martha's talk. I thought she was very well spoken and had so much knowledge to share. She also had such an interesting background coming from law enforcement and I think that's what makes her even more fun to listen to because she tells it how it is and I can appreciate that. Overall it was amazing to hear her speak and learn more about her organization.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension

mcs351 — 2025-11-12 15:50:45 UTC

Rutgers Cooperative Extension is what Doug works for and they have one for each county which is cool. They do a lot of work and I will link the Ocean County one below. During his talk it made me realize how much work Rutgers does outside of campus and how impactful the research is for not just New Jersey but everywhere.

BOEM Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

mcs351 — 2025-11-12 16:00:56 UTC

I had never heard of BOEM before Doug's talk but they do a lot of the heavy lifting in getting these offshore wind projects to work. There is so many permits and plans that go on behind the scenes to even propose these projects and they tend to manage a lot of it.

Billion Dollar Leases

mcs351 — 2025-11-12 16:09:16 UTC

I did not know how expensive it was to have a 25 year LEASE of ocean area for an offshore wind project. These projects and are expensive and time consuming and the worst part, they can't even happen now with the executive order shutting almost all of them down.

Doug's Talk

mcs351 — 2025-11-12 18:43:10 UTC

Doug's talk was very informative. I actually knew a bit about offshore wind and how it works but I didn't realize all the planning that goes into it. How long it takes these projects to get going and all the people involve really is a hard project to get going. Also getting the public's perception to align with the project's is a task on its own. I think Doug did a wonderful job at presenting and answering the class' questions and I appreciate him coming in to speak with us!

Climate Communication

mcs351 — 2025-11-19 15:40:30 UTC

Anushka's talk about Climate Communication was great as it kind of went through all the methods of communicating science. It tied in very well with the class themes and I thought she did a good job at explaining how important communicating science is to the public. Her internship at the DEP also sounded cool as she helped make infographics and social posts for them which is important for getting the word out there.

Eclipse Ambassador

mcs351 — 2025-11-19 15:59:38 UTC

Andrea's talk on her eclipse ambassadorship was interesting and left me with a few questions about the program. What I'm wondering is how the program is funded as I believe it is NOAA and the government and so I'm wondering with the change in politics right now if it's still running? I think it's a very unique position and the traveling seems cool.

Ecology Film Project

mcs351 — 2025-11-19 16:18:28 UTC

Shaniya's film project was truly inspirational, I think her idea of creating a film to teach younger students is amazing. The fact that she is not only creating the film but doing the research on whether or not the film actually helps students learn better is great. I think her film will do a great job of showing children the real world problems as well as them getting to know the scientists behind all the import research work. I can't wait for the full film to come out!

Class Overall

mcs351 — 2025-11-29 03:42:28 UTC

Overall I have a wonderful time in this course. I learned so many new things about how resilient we are right now and how much more we can be in the future. I never knew much about the coast as I never lived near it but I wanted to know more and I have seen so many great resources out there. Thank you Lisa for an amazing class and letting us hear from all these amazing people!