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The Delaware Estuary has a nearly continuous fringe of diverse types of tidal marshes, which serve as critical habitat for fish and wildlife and provide important services for residents in the surrounding area. Much of this habitat is presently stressed by human alterations and activities and climate change impacts appear to be exacerbating these issues. The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE), through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Ready Estuaries Program, assessed the climate vulnerabilities of tidal wetlands and two other key resources (drinking water and bivalve shellfish), identified monitoring and management needs, and created an adaptation plan. Lessons learned from this pilot project were used to inform the public and managers on how to get the best environmental return on investments designed to sustain vital resources.
The Delaware Estuary, spanning Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife, and drinking water, recreation, and food for residents. In addition, the estuary hosts the largest freshwater port in the world and five of the largest refineries on the east coast of the United States. The PDE was selected as one of the six pilot projects under the EPA’s Climate Ready Estuaries Program, receiving grants in 2008 and 2009 to support these efforts. PDE had many collaborators on this project, including the Academy of Natural Sciences, Delaware River Basin Commission, and U.S. Geological Survey. A Climate Adaptation Work Group was also set up to oversee technical elements. PDE worked with partners to examine three case studies focused on human impacts (drinking water), habitat (tidal wetlands), and living resources (shellfish) in order to assess the resources’ vulnerability to climate change. Impacts of particular concern for the area are sea level rise, salinity rise, increases in temperature, altered rainfall, and increased storms. For each of the three resources—drinking water, tidal wetlands, and shellfish—project leads conducted an inventory of project climate change impacts, identified data gaps, and identified and prioritized management options.
Drinking water, tidal wetlands, and shellfish were selected as case study topics because of their ecological and societal importance to the region:
Example adaptation recommendations included:
The final report was released in June 2010 and includes results from the assessments and adaptation strategy recommendations. This project influenced other PDE projects and they now consistently work to incorporate climate change into their programing through workshops and community outreach. For example, PDE developed Weathering Change, a resource to engage community leaders on the use of nature-based solutions as a means of community protection and water quality provisioning. As part of the development of the 2019 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP), PDE conducted a vulnerability assessment to analyze how climate change could impact CCMP strategies. Climate stressors such as increasing temperatures, drought, storms, and sea level rise were ranked based on the consequences of risks, the likelihood of risks occurring, and the spatial extent and time horizon of likely impacts. The plan emphasizes the need for increased community resilience to climate change impacts and access to clean and healthy water resources.
Gregg, R. M. (2021). Identifying Opportunities for Climate Adaptation in the Delaware Estuary [Case study on a project of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary]. Version 2.0. Product of EcoAdapt’s State of Adaptation Program. Retrieved from CAKE: https://www.cakex.org/case-studies/identifying-opportunities-climate-adaptation-delaware-estuary (Last updated October 2021)
