LimnoTech led a consultant team that worked with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSLCI) to support Great Lakes cities through the Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative (RCPI). The RCPI supported local communities in planning sustainable, fundable projects that protect and restore shoreline ecological and community assets.
Concept drawing by Michelle Platz (LimnoTech).
A concept sketch of a vegetated swale next to a waterbody that has root wads/woody debris, native aquatic vegetation, a gently sloping shoreline, and floating docks.

Locations:
Great Lakes Region

Client:
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (funded through the NFWF NCRF)

Partners:
SmithGroup, ISG

Service Areas:

Our Expert:

LimnoTech led a consultant team that worked with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSLCI) to support Great Lakes cities through the Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative (RCPI). The RCPI supported local communities in planning sustainable, fundable projects that protect and restore shoreline ecological and community assets. These projects address coastal hazards, such as flooding and erosion, while adding new community benefits, including public spaces, recreation, habitat, and improved water quality.

The Initiative

The GLSLCI developed the RCPI program to assist vulnerable coastal communities in the Great Lakes region with addressing challenges such as shoreline erosion, flooding, and habitat loss. The initiative focused on planning and capacity-building activities with community partners to guide the identification and conceptualization of nature-based solutions to protect natural resources, public infrastructure, and community assets.

LimnoTech’s team of engineers and landscape architects helped GLSLCI and community partners identify and prioritize municipal-level projects for coastal resiliency improvement and habitat restoration. Community partners relied on our team’s technical expertise and design support to conceptualize and develop nature-based coastal resilience improvement projects. The project team then helped GLSLCI identify applicable infrastructure protection and habitat restoration-based funding opportunities.

The team developed a roadmap of next steps to best position participating municipalities to apply for funds to support project advancement into early planning and design. Key activities included engaging with local leaders to identify community priorities, collaborating with regional partners and technical experts to develop tailored solutions, and securing funding through federal, state, and regional grants.

How We Helped

The RCPI program emphasized support for communities with environmental equity challenges and limited staff resources to address coastal resilience problems. The team worked with community stakeholders and regional experts to understand project needs and conceptualize nature-based and hybrid solutions to improve coastal resilience and protect both natural coastal resources and critical infrastructure.

Projects prioritized for capacity building included those that met three key criteria:

  • Improve aquatic and nearshore habitat
  • Increase waterfront resilience
  • Address public safety, access, and infrastructure concerns

Projects selected for further development provided social and ecological co-benefits, incorporated sustainable, nature-based solutions to address impacts in coastal areas, and emphasized equity by benefitting vulnerable and underserved communities where possible. Example project topics included managing shoreline erosion, flooding, stormwater outfalls, aquatic and riparian habitat restoration, wave attenuation strategies, bank and bluff stabilization, and critical infrastructure protection. LimnoTech led several consultant teams that supported GLSLCI in conducting the RCPI program with municipalities across multiple Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin (2021), Indiana (2022-2023), Michigan (2021-2024), and New York (2023-2024).

In addition to planning and capacity building services provided to participating municipalities, primary deliverables included project implementation frameworks, intended to aid cities with progressing their project concepts through engineering design, permitting, and into implementation. Implementation frameworks also identified applicable grant funding opportunities to support project advancement through the design and implementation phases. This project sought to build awareness of ongoing funding opportunities for coastal projects among participating city mayors and their staff, increase project proposal development capacity, and facilitate partnerships and collaboration on projects to foster the potential for broader beneficial impacts to the Great Lakes Basin.

Toward this effort, LimnoTech has:

  • Provided overall project identification, prioritization, selection, and planning services.
  • Participated in workgroup meetings with a regional advisory team, city mayors, and community stakeholders to identify areas of coastal resilience need.
  • Provided community planning and capacity-building services that included the development and delivery of an educational webinar on nature-based solutions for addressing coastal resilience challenges with GLSLCI and the NYSDEC.
  • Oversaw project concept co-development and refinement in collaboration with city representatives and regional/state technical specialists.
  • Led implementation framework development, finalization, and delivery.

One RCPI project to highlight is the Cheboygan Downtown Riverwalk Greenway project in Cheboygan, Michigan. GLSLCI, the City of Cheboygan, SmithGroup, and LimnoTech collaborated on an RCPI project in the spring of 2024 to identify and develop concepts for this shoreline resilience project. This team continues to work together, with funds provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) National Coastal Resilience Fund (NCRF) grant program, to develop preliminary engineering designs to replace failing timber pile walls and promenades with a naturalized riverbank slope and native vegetation to manage erosion and sediment while improving fish, bird, and invertebrate habitat. This community project also improves public access to the waterfront with a ¼ mile riverwalk greenway, improved ADA access to the pedestrian bridge, and new floating docks (GLSLCI, 2025).

What’s Next

LimnoTech and our project partners continue to support RCPI projects and participating Great Lakes communities by working with resilience-focused state and federal programs to secure funding for project advancement. Support from programs such as the NFWF NCRF, Coastal Management Program (state-funded program), and the Initiative for Resilient Great Lakes Coasts (NOAA/GLRI funded program) has been used in combination with local knowledge, resources, and matching funds to evolve projects at the capacity building and conceptualization phase into engineering design phases, and position them for permitting and project construction.

Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSLCI) Webinar

NY Coastal Resilience Webinar: Enhancing Resilience through Nature-Based Solutions and Funding Opportunities, New York State. In this webinar, Michelle Platz and Craig Taylor of LimnoTech discuss coastal resilience challenges and opportunities, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), funding, and project examples in New York as well as in other Great Lakes states (starting at 26 minutes).

Projects

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