2023 Portsmouth Program

“Water Has a Memory: Preserving Historic Port Cities from Sea Level Rise”

The conference opens with a reception the evening of Sunday, May 7th featuring keynote Howard Mansfield, author of the Yankee Magazine cover story, “Rising Seas” and several books.

Sunday, May 7, 5-6pm: Welcome Reception
  • Conference Hosts: City of Portsmouth, Strawbery Banke Museum, University of New Hampshire, and the Newport Restoration Foundation
  • Keynote: Howard Mansfield, author of the Yankee Magazine cover story “Rising Seas” 
Monday, May 8, 8:30am-2pm: Conference Sessions
  • Welcome: Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
  • How One Non-Profit is Tackling Climate Change, Margaret Back, Newport Restoration Foundation
  • Host Case: “Water Has a Memory”, Strawbery Banke, City of Portsmouth, and the UNH Earth Sciences Center
  • Case: City of Portsmouth “Think Blue” Initiative, Brian Goetz, City of Portsmouth Deputy Director DPW
  • Case: Measuring & Monitoring with Well Sensors, Michael Routhier, UNH Earth Sciences Center
  • Case: Black Heritage Trail of NH Groundwater Sensor Project, Barbara Ward, BHTNH
  • Case: Implementing Resiliency Measures: A Case History of the Portsmouth’s 1860 Historic Shaw Warehouse, Cassie Bethoney, Weston + Sampson
  • Case: Charting Solutions in a Resilient City 2.0, Tidewater VA, Kerry Shackleford and Paige Pollard, Building Resilient Solutions, Suffolk VA
  • Case: Preparing Historic Sites Now for Carbon Neutrality and Resilience, Ben Haavik, Historic New England Team Leader, Property Care
  • Case: Salem’s House of Seven Gables and MA Coastal Zone Management, Susan Baker, House of Seven Gables and the MA Coastal Zone Management
  • Case: The Provincetown MA Flood Plain: Preservation Case Studies Panel, Regina Binder, Provincetown Comprehensive Plan Committee
  • Case: Increasing Climate Resiliency through Selective Dam Removal While Preserving Our Past, Quinn Stuart and Peter Walker, VHB Cultural and Environmental Services
  • Lunch
Monday, May 8, 3-5pm: Tours
  • A site visit to examine how Strawbery Banke master plan process to deflect surface flooding from its 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings, with Horsley-Witten and PlaceWorks
  • A site visit examining the City’s resiliency plan to raise and move the 1806 Shaw warehouse back from the waterfront, with Weston + Sampson, Inc.
Tuesday, May 9, 8:30am-2pm: Conference Sessions
  • NOAA’s Flood Risk Assessment & Application Guide, Mark Osler, NOAA Senior Advisor for Coastal Inundation and Resilience
  • New Hampshire Coastal Flood Risk Assessment & Guidance, Cameron Wake, Research Professor, UNH Earth Systems Research Center and Josephine A. Lamprey, Professor in Climate and Sustainability at the UNH Sustainability Institute
  • Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Update: Role of the federal government in climate change policy development, Sara Bronin, Chair, ACHP, and Cornell University Fellow, Atkinson Center on Sustainability
  • Case: A Tale of Three Storms: National Park Service superintendent’s super-storm experiences at three NPS historic sites, Dave Luchsinger, former NPS Superintendent
  • Case: Living Above the Street: Flood Retrofitting and Adaptive Streetscape of New York City’s Historic Districts, Ziming Wang, M.S. Columbia University
  • Case: Adapting to Sea Level Rise in Southern Maine’s Historic Waterfront Communities, David Reidmiller, Gulf of Maine Research Institute; Ian Stevenson & Sarah Hansen, Greater Portland Landmarks and Abbie Sherwin, Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission
  • Lunch
Tuesday, May 9, 3-5pm: Tours
  • Gundalow Piscataqua, guided riverine environment cruise (46 people)
  • Portsmouth Waterfront Preservation: North Mill Pond Living Shoreline and Point of Graves Historic Cemetery

 

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