The third, and last, professional stakeholder workshop of this series was held on June 4th, 2013, in Marineland, FL. Nine participants with backgrounds in development, real estate, and business were welcomed by Micheal Shirley, Director of the GTM Research Reserve. The University of Florida project team then presented participants with an analysis of potential sea level rise impacts to the Matanzas Basin, and a primer on adaptation planning. Afterwards, participants provided input towards future planning scenarios through a visioning exercise and a sea level rise adaption strategy role-play game.

The workshop provided an excellent forum to discuss ways to ensure the Matanzas area’s continued vitality. The project team thanks participants for a productive workshop and engaging conversations. The input provided by participants will inform the next phase of the project that generates maps of future land use scenarios. These maps will be shared with all stakeholder groups and citizens in late fall of 2013.

Doug Davis (far right) discusses his group’s results from the sea level rise adaptation strategy game.

Workshop participants identified their top priorities from the visioning exercise by placing a red dot by their preferences.

The Matanzas project has a new Facebook page! The page operates in tandem with the main project website, PlanningMatanzas.org, to apply one of the most powerful social media tools to share the latest project activities and upcoming events. When you visit our Facebook page, “like” it for convenient, timely updates on the project. Liking and sharing the page also promotes the project and helps us reach a wider audience.

Community residents and game developer Briana Ozor (far left) are shown participating in the Sea Level Rise Adaptation Strategy Role-Play Game at Flagler College, St. Augustine, in December 2012.

For our stakeholder workshops, Dr. Dawn Jourdan and University of Florida master’s student Briana Ozor developed a role-play game involving sea level rise adaptation strategies. Participants play in groups of five and each person takes on a different stakeholder persona: local resident, government official, environmental scientist, ecotourism business owner, or inland developer. Each player has a certain amount of money, and the object of the game is to work together to “buy” different sea level rise adaptation strategies to help their community plan for sea level rise. Adaptation strategies include seawalls, beach nourishment, raising buildings, coastal ecosystem restoration, steering future development away from the coast, habitat migration corridors, aquifer recharge easements, and planned relocation of existing coastal development.

The game supports an active, applied learning experience. Not only does the game give workshop participants time to interact with each other, it sparks important dialogue among players as they navigate their roles and select strategies. Participants may explore adaptation strategies that they had not fully considered before. For instance, many players learn about the option of installing living shorelines as an eco-friendly alternative to seawalls. Many participants note the learning benefit of putting sea level rise planning into economic terms. Others note how seemingly opposing viewpoints (the environmental scientist and inland developer, for example) may benefit from the same strategy. Although it can be challenging to play an unfamiliar role or to come to group consensus, players leave the game with a different perspective of sea level rise planning. In the end, participants say the game illustrates the importance of having all stakeholders represented at the table. Through this simulation, it becomes clear that the future of sea level rise adaptation planning depends on collaboration, negotiation, and innovation.

Example persona card.

Example strategy card.

More information is available in this Sea Level Rise Adaptation Strategy Role-Play Game fact sheet. The game materials are available below:

SLR Adaptation Role Play Game Instructions

SLR Adaptation Role Play Game Cards

Game Map

Vulnerable areas map

Youth Version of SLR Adaptation Role Play Game