Application of a Novel Climate Adaptation Tool for Prioritization of Historic Structures in Coastal National Parks

Climate change poses a threat to future resource management in National Parks. For coastal parks, cultural resources such as historic structures are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change-related threats such as sea level rise and hurricane storm surge. In the summer of 2023, a novel tool was created at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to provide a simple methodology for prioritizing historic structures for climate adaptation based on physical vulnerability and historic significance metrics. The goal of this Master's Project is to assess the transferability of the novel climate change adaptation prioritization tool and compare the outputs of this tool to the most common climate change vulnerability assessment protocol used in coastal National Parks. The novel tool transferability assessment was conducted by applying the tool to historic structures in Cape Cod National Seashore and concluded that the current iteration of the tool requires modification for application in other parks due to inconsistencies of data applicability and availability and challenges in interpretation of the tool outputs. The comparison between the novel tool and the vulnerability assessment protocol revealed significant disparities between the assessment methodology and recommendations produced, and analysis of the outputs from both tools revealed substantial added value from significance metrics in the novel tool. Lessons learned from this analysis were used to produce recommendations for the National Park Service in development of climate change adaptation guidelines.