Bill Text: CT SB01013 | 2013 | General Assembly | Chaptered
Bill Title: An Act Concerning Climate Change Adaptation And Data Collection.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-3-1)
Status: (Passed) 2013-06-06 - Signed by the Governor [SB01013 Detail]
Download: Connecticut-2013-SB01013-Chaptered.html
AN ACT CONCERNING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND DATA COLLECTION.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective from passage) Not later than February 15, 2014, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and The University of Connecticut shall, in accordance with section 11-4a of the general statutes, report to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to the environment on the joint efforts of said department and university to establish a Connecticut Center for Coasts. Such report shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (1) A detailed description of the mission for such a center that shall include, at a minimum, conducting research, outreach and education projects to guide the development of technologies and regulatory provisions that increase the protection of ecosystems, coastal properties and other lands and attributes of the state that are subject to the effects of rising sea levels, (2) the proposed governance of such center, including appointment of a center director, establishment of an advisory board and the requisite staffing level for such center, (3) a plan for the center's performance of: (A) Mapping exercises to assess and visualize key characteristics of shoreline resiliency, such as shoreline changes, (B) pilot-scale engineering and impact assessment studies, (C) consensus building efforts to determine state-wide uniform guidelines for planning and development purposes, including the expected rate of sea level rise for the next one hundred years, (D) ways to develop state-wide, science-based planning and management alternatives, (E) development in science and information-based outreach and technology transfer programs for state and local agencies and officials involved in planning and development, (F) an assessment of soft shore protection strategies in Long Island Sound and the development of instructional guides for the use of such soft shore protection strategies, (G) a comprehensive coastal infrastructure inventory and risk assessment, (H) an analysis of the impact of seawalls in urban and rural communities, (I) the development of uniform, state-wide models that predict inundation flood scenarios under slow, constant sea level rise and under storm surges, (J) projects that lead to the development of rapid storm damage assessment technology, (K) developing design guidelines for the construction and repair of seawalls, and (L) developing tools for determining appropriate shore protection strategies and providing coastal protection information to a diverse range of end users, (4) a listing of the existing university and department resources that will be utilized in the performance of the center's responsibilities and a description of the specific ways in which each resource will be used to perform such responsibilities, and (5) the sources and amounts of funding that the department and university, either jointly or individually, intend to secure or secured for the purpose of establishing such center.