R/UC-3

Strategic focus area:

Description:

Baltimore City is a coastal city with 61 miles of coastline that supports international commerce, maritime activities, waterfront businesses and tourism/recreation. Despite this active and flourishing waterfront, underserved coast-adjacent South Baltimore neighborhoods including Brooklyn, Curtis Bay, Cherry Hill and Brooklyn Park have limited access to landscapes adjacent to the City’s coastal waterfront. This limited access prevents residents from actualizing the physical and mental health benefits of these “blue spaces” and limits the equitable distribution of climate change resilience benefits from urban heat island mitigation. The overarching goal of this project is to enhance existing and develop new stakeholder relationships to support research co-production that ultimately informs the design and placement of blue spaces for the equitable distribution of health and climate resilience benefits. Meaningfully engaging groups from underserved areas requires active outreach and a commitment to equal exchange, capacity building, sharing of resources, knowledge, and expertise across disciplines, institutions, and class. A diverse team of principal investigators from Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will partner with community stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, state agency representatives, and Maryland Sea Grant extension personnel to jointly pursue the project goal. The project will commence with a year-long effort to enhance existing relationships and build new relationships with South Baltimore stakeholders. With a solid foundation and the accumulated social capital, the project team will then co-produce quantitative and qualitative social science research examining South Baltimore stakeholder beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and opinions related to blue space access and climate resilience in South Baltimore. The project will culminate by using this co-produced research to inform the adaptive management of existing initiatives and the development of new initiatives that foster access to blue and green spaces and provide climate adaptation options.