FOR RELEASE: July 30, 2007

 

For More Information:  Gene Clark, Coastal Engineering Specialist, UW Sea Grant Institute, (715) 394-8472

EXPERT TO ADDRESS EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON COASTAL PROPERTY

Philip Keillor, expert on coastal hazards along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shores, will visit Concordia University Wisconsin to discuss what coastal communities and property owners need to know about climate change.

He will address “Climate Change Coming to the Coasts of Wisconsin: How It May Affect Coastal Communities and Property Owners” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, August 15, in the Todd Wehr Auditorium, on the Concordia University Wisconsin campus, 12800 North Lake Shore Drive. Parking is available in the Heidelberg parking lot, directly south of the auditorium.

Keillor helped shoreline communities manage coastal hazards throughout his 30-year career as the UW-Madison Sea Grant Institute’s Coastal Engineering Specialist. Since retiring in 2004, he has taken a keen interest in climate change studies and how future scenarios could affect coastal property.

Keillor will discuss plausible scenarios of future climate change in the state and Great Lakes Region, the uncertainties surrounding these scenarios, and how lake levels and the stability of coastal slopes could be affected. He will also address the present situation of the coasts and will propose ways to increase the short-term and long-range resiliency of coastal lands and coastal investments to a changing climate.

Keillor’s lecture is part of the 2007 seminar series “Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region: Starting a Public Discussion,” sponsored by the UW Sea Grant Institute and Ozaukee County and funded by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See www.seagrant.wisc.edu/climatechange for details and updates.

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Conceived in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 30 university-based programs of research, outreach, and education for enhancing the practical use and conservation of coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources to create a sustainable economy and environment. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of participating coastal states, private industry, and the National Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

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