A workshop co-organized by Ecologic Institute in Annapolis, Maryland investigated how the public's view of climate change can influence local government's ability to adapt to climate change. It was a part of the exchange activities of the RADOST project (Regional Adaptation Strategies for the German Baltic Sea Coast) with partner regions in the USA. The examples provided at the workshop focused on the coastal zones of the US state of Maryland and the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Maryland and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein have a common feature in that both have two coasts, one to the open sea and one to an enclosed sea, making comparison and cooperation between the two states particularly promising. The interactive workshop held on 7 March 2012 served to highlight research and projects addressing coastal hazard adaptation and planning in Maryland's coastal zone and on the coasts of the Baltic Sea and North Sea in Germany; to share ideas and lessons learned; to discuss best practices; and to share products and outcomes that might be applicable to - or replicable in - other coastal communities. Twenty-one participants representing universities and local, state and federal governments from Maryland and Germany attended the event, which was hosted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in Annapolis, MD.
Throughout the day, the participants engaged each other to learn more about the research and planning that was being conducted around the state of Maryland and in the German regions of the Baltic and North Sea and how it could be utilized at the local level to better inform the decision making process.