March 3, 2026Open Access

From Resilience Planning to Action: Small Towns and Big Costs

Key Points

Small towns are transitioning from climate planning to taking effective action, facing major costs along the way.
Interviews with town staff in nine coastal communities reveal ongoing challenges despite having vulnerability assessments.
Such communities, each with fewer than 3,000 residents, are grappling with substantial economic impacts from recent storms.
This study highlights the need for effective implementation strategies to deal with climate-related damages in small towns.

Abstract

These authors explored the transition from climate planning to action in semistructured interviews with town staff and leading volunteers in each of the nine communities. They focused on coastal communities with fewer than 3,000 people and organized as towns. All are in Hancock County, had completed a climate vulnerability assessment or had one underway, and experienced substantial, costly damage in the January 2024 storms.

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Authors

Bill Zoellick

Gulf of Maine Research Institute

James Fisher

Janna Richards

Journals

Maine policy review

SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología

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From Resilience Planning to Action: Small Towns and Big Costs

Key Points

Abstract

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