Collaboration & Community at the Forefront
Our Climate Vulnerability Assessment focuses on understanding and addressing key environmental risks in the upper Mystic River Watershed. Working with Fuss & O’Neill, our tribal partners, and our communities, we are identifying critical vulnerabilities and creating solutions that reflect the experiences of those who live here.
Climate Risk
Risk can be defined as the probability of an adverse event occurring and the magnitude of its potential consequences. Risk assessment typically focuses on objective impacts, such as economic losses and infrastructure damage.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability examines how individuals and groups are affected by, and cope with, these impacts. It recognizes that different people and communities have varying capacities to respond and recover, and thus experience different levels of vulnerability.
Key Areas of Focus:
Flood Risk Mapping
Conduct GIS-based desktop analysis to identify areas vulnerable to both pluvial (rainfall-driven) and fluvial (riverine) flooding.
Future Tidal Flooding Projections
Evaluate potential tidal flooding impacts in Old Mystic using CIRCA sea level rise projections, focusing on where local watersheds discharge into the Mystic River Estuary.
Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability
Review critical facilities for exposure to current and future flood risks.
Extreme Heat & Public Health
Evaluate ecological and human health risks associated with extreme heat events.
Water Quality Impacts from Climate Change
Assess how more frequent and intense precipitation—along with rising air and water temperatures—could degrade water quality through increased runoff and pollutant loading.
Drought-Related Water Supply Risks
Analyze risks to groundwater and surface water resources from more frequent or prolonged drought conditions, as well as fire risk associated with drought.
Additional Risks Identified Through Public Engagement
Identify and explore additional risks surfaced through our engagement with our communities.
Community Engagement Opportunities:
Your Voice Matters
Community Conversation Circles
Join our Community Action Team (CAT) in open and welcoming discussion spaces where you can:
-
Share your stories, experiences, and local knowledge
-
Voice your concerns and priorities
-
Help shape how we respond to climate challenges together
These conversation circles are powerful spaces to connect, reflect, and collaborate with neighbors who care deeply about the future of our environment and community.
Take the Community Survey
Prefer to share your thoughts online?
Your input is essential. Take just a few minutes to complete our Community Survey and help inform the direction of our Vulnerability Assessment. Your insights will directly influence how we prepare for challenges like flooding, extreme heat, water quality concerns, and more.
Regional Alignment & Integrated Planning
All of the information and stories gathered during the Vulnerability Assessment will contribute to our Living Atlas. The is Living Atlas is GIS-based map of watershed data, stories, questions, and observations that tells a compelling story about human relationships with the Mystic River Watershed to identify how we may better care for our land and waterways, and subsequently ourselves.
Additionally, this Vulnerability Assessment builds on—and complements—existing climate resilience efforts across Southeast Connecticut.
We believe that many climate risks are most effectively addressed at the watershed level, so our goal is to weave together these efforts into a cohesive, action-oriented framework that will contribute to our Watershed Regeneration Action Plan. ​​Long-term, we aim to support a truly regional and global response to the shared risks of climate change.
​​​​​​
Related Plans in the Watershed:
Looking Ahead: The Watershed Regeneration Action Plan
All collected data, assessments, and community insights will contribute to our Living Atlas (interactive map coming soon!) and guide the development of our Watershed Regeneration Action Plan.
This plan will focus on both immediate solutions—like:
-
Living shorelines
-
Regenerative housing
-
Green stormwater infrastructure
And systemic changes, such as:
-
Transitioning to a climate-positive economy
