Environment
ENR 2025 Top 500 Sourcebook: Arup Picked for RI Coastal Resilience Study
State will use findings of first-of-its-kind analysis to guide infrastructure investment decisions
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State study will analyze impacts of increasing climate events, such as the Trustom Pond breach during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (inset), which have led to $22 million in FEMA assistance for flood damage in Rhode Island between September 2023 and January 2024.
Photo credits: Main photo Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons; Inset courtesy U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank and Dept. of Environmental Management have selected consultant Arup to conduct a statewide study of its 400-mile-plus coastline to examine climate change impacts and risks.
The study, the first statewide effort of its kind, will inform needed coastal mitigation and resilience measures, project scoping and steps to obtain necessary financing for related infrastructure projects. The estimated $750,000 analysis will examine sea level rise and impacts from more frequent and wetter storms, rising water and air temperatures and biodiversity changes.
“This study is more critical than ever as we seek to understand and implement infrastructure solutions needed to strengthen our coastal resilience,” said Terry Gray, director of the Rhode Island environmental agency. “While important investments have already been made, there is still significant work ahead.”
Arup, chosen in a competitive bidding process, has named engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill, design firm CIVIC and economic development consultant Camoin Associates as subcontractors.
The initiative scales up the work of Rhode Island's Municipal Resilience Program, in which local representatives particpate in workshops that help them identify climate risks and qualify them to apply for project grant funding to address those risks. To date, more than $24 million has been awarded. “This investment is not only essential for protecting communities statewide, but it also positions Rhode Island as a national leader in climate resilience,” said Kim Korioth, Rhode Island chief resilience officer.
$1.9T
Amount of global climate financing as of 2023, on pace to be within reach by 2028 of estimated $6 trillion needed for 2030 UN climate action plans
Source: Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2025 report, Climate Policy Initiative
In 2024, the state legislature passed a law mandating creation of a plan to examine short-, medium- and long-term climate risks, from 2035 to 2100—and to recommend mitigation and resilience steps, as well as methodologies for investments to harden infrastructure. The plan is now accepting public input in a series of community forums, with the next one taking place July 17 in East Providence, R.I.
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