Managed Retreat Toolkit

This online resource presents legal and policy tools, best and emerging practices, and case studies to support peer learning and decision making around managed retreat and climate adaptation. Collectively, the toolkit is designed to help policymakers:

• Identify and assess a range of legal and policy tools available to facilitate managed retreat in vulnerable coastal areas experiencing sea level rise, flooding, and land loss;
• Implement best and emerging practices by highlighting the most innovative managed retreat practices that are being deployed at the state and local levels around the country; and
• Overcome legal and policy barriers to implementation by providing decision-making frameworks for navigating these barriers and evaluating tradeoffs facing people, communities, and the environment.

The primary audiences for the toolkit are state, territorial, and local policymakers in U.S. coastal jurisdictions.