The Texas Coastal Watershed Program (TCWP) developed a new GIS-based model to enable coastal residents and local officials to see the impacts of different development scenarios on community resilience and natural resources. Using data sets associated with the Coastal Community Planning Atlas (Placeways, LLC), the TCWP developed an interface, using CommunityViz software, that allows impacts ranging from pollutant loadings to water consumption to storm surge damage to be calculated instantaneously. The power of the CHARM model is the ability of participants to test a variety of possible futures, shifting the discussion from contested narratives about the science of coastal change and moving it towards a self-evaluation of how prepared their communities are for coastal change.

For more information please see a recent Grant Report

Steven Mikulencak and Dr. John Jacob play with scenarios on a “weTable” they created to help community planners and local residents make decisions about development and its impact on water and climate change. The project, called Coastal CHARM, which stands for Community Health And Resource Management and also captures what residents feel about their area, is part of a Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Sea Grant.

For full story, see http://agrilife.org/today/2011/07/18/coastal-charm-game/

For more videos check out our YouTube Channel!

Addtional Links & News

Our partners at Placeways LLC wrote a case study about CHARM:

Coastal Resiliency Seminar

Houston Chronicle Article reporting on tool and workshop, June 02, 2011:

Software puts development in public’s hands Program can help show residents how decisions affect neighborhoods

Recorded webinar hosted by EBM tools about weTable and CHARM, March 14, 2012:

CommunityViz CHARM Model Presentation

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