Coastal Resilience Developmental Evaluations

In response to the increasing threats that coastal communities face from natural hazards, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the coastal resilience regional challenge (CRRC) program. The CRRC program provides $575 million in funding to 19 projects that support regional efforts to build resilience to extreme weather events such as hurricanes and storm surge and to longer-term, chronic hazards, including sea level rise, drought, wildfire, extreme heat, and coastal erosion. To better understand the impact of these investments, NOAA has been working with Ocean Associates, Inc. (OAI) and ERG to conduct developmental evaluations of both the CRRC project work and the technical assistance provided by NOAA and its partners to support grantees.

As a subcontractor to OAI, ERG has been designing a multi-year comprehensive evaluation process to measure risk-reduction, economic, capacity building, and other impacts of NOAA's CRRC program. Working closely with NOAA and its awardees, ERG has been refining an evaluation framework and defining metrics for success. ERG will collect qualitative and quantitative data in phases through document review, surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions with awardees, and site visits and then develop annual reports to provide NOAA with actionable findings and recommendations. In the final year of the evaluation, we will synthesize lessons learned and program-wide impact. To maximize strategic use of the results, ERG is also developing a communications strategy and tailored materials to help NOAA effectively share the value and impact of its resilience investments.