Integral - Coastal Adaptation Planning Services
Integral is a preeminent innovator in guiding communities and facilities through the complex adaptation planning process. The purpose of adaptation planning is to develop pathways to minimize the inevitable impacts of sea level rise on property, infrastructure, and critical ecosystems.
Our customizable decision-support framework toolkit, Coastal ADAPT (Adaptation Decision And Planning Toolkit), is implemented in phases, first providing the critical baseline information for selecting appropriate adaptation strategies, and then modeling their implementation to evaluate potential secondary impacts and unintended consequences. As part of this framework, we carefully and clearly lay out the trade-offs and secondary consequences of each strategy to support effective decision-making. Results of this approach are applied to evaluate cost-effectiveness of different strategies and identify when it makes sense to transition from one adaptation strategy to another.
Integral Consulting identifies science-based solutions to coastal-related challenges by taking a holistic, systems approach to understanding the risks posed by physical processes to social, economic, and ecological aspects of coastal communities and facilities. We evaluate the costs, benefits, and trade-offs among different adaptation approaches, leading to sustainable community planning and resource management.
Our team’s portfolio of scientific expertise—geology, oceanography, modeling, geomorphology, ecology, and economics—allows us to unravel the complex processes that make communities and facilities vulnerable to coastal change. We understand how to measure, analyze, and explain the interactive processes driving change today, and we have the tools to project how the interactions will evolve in the future.