Latest News
The City of Wilmington has recently been selected to participate in the North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program, which is helping coastal cities prepare for the rising risks of storms, flooding, and other coastal hazards. This program will help us take a close look at how these events impact our neighborhoods, public infrastructure, and natural areas, and identify projects that can move quickly into design and construction.
We kicked off the first meeting of our Community Action Team in November, 2025 with 19 partners representing city departments, local businesses, neighborhood leaders, nonprofits, and universities. Their insight will guide this work and help us shape practical solutions for Wilmington.
More updates to come as this project moves forward and we continue working toward a safer, stronger, and more resilient city. Please check back over the course of the project to stay updated on the latest news. In the meantime, feel free to check out material provided below to stay up to date about the City of Wilmington’s Risk & Vulnerability Assessment planning process.
Project Overview
Building resilience to natural hazards is vital for communities to help maintain quality of life, healthy growth, durable systems, and conservation of resources for present and future generations; however, several barriers to developing resilience to coastal risks exist, including economic and capacity constraints that have been exacerbated in recent times. Resiliency refers to not only the ability of a community to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threats, but to thrive amidst changing conditions or challenges.
A risk and vulnerability assessment is a key component to building resilience in a coastal community. Risks are assessed as multi-hazard threats to communities such as flooding, storm surge, or sea level rise that may occur amidst storms and a changing climate. Vulnerabilities are assessed as the degree of exposure to these risks, and the means to cope with stressors or disasters that arise from them.
Building a more resilient City of Wilmington requires careful, thorough planning efforts using sound, locally relevant data. City of Wilmington has been awarded financial assistance in the form of technical resources on behalf of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management’s (DCM) Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP). The RCCP will advance coastal resilience efforts throughout the 20 coastal communities in North Carolina. The objectives of this program include:
- Address barriers to coastal resilience in North Carolina at the local level, such as limited capacity, economic constraints, and social inequities;
- Assist communities with risk and vulnerability assessments;
- Help communities develop a portfolio of well-planned and prioritized projects;
- Advance priority projects to shovel-readiness, or ready for implementation; and
- Link communities to funding streams for project implementation.
DCM has partnered with Moffatt & Nichol, our selected contractor, and the City to conduct a Risk & Vulnerability Assessment and develop a portfolio of projects. This website will function as a repository of all project-related information and a means for you to contribute in a meaningful way.
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The Process Forward
The following project milestones outline our estimated ten-month planning process and highlight specific timeframes when our public meetings and other public involvement opportunities are expected to occur. These dates may change as the project moves forward. Please check back for updates.
Phase 1
- Community Action Team Meeting #1 – November 2025 - Please find meeting slides below in the Documents section.
- Community Action Team Meeting #2 – January 2026
- Public Survey – February 2026
- Public Meeting #1 – March 2026
- Community Action Team Meeting #3 – March 2026
- Draft Presentation of Risk & Vulnerability Assessment to City of Wilmington – April 2026
Phase 2
- Community Action Team Meeting #4 – June 2026
- Public Meeting #2 – June 2026
- Community Action Team Meeting #5 – August 2026
- Final Presentation of Risk & Vulnerability Assessment to City of Wilmington – September 2026
Program Sponsor
Thank you to N.C. Division of Coastal Management (DCM)’s North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP) for providing technical and financial assistance to advance coastal resilience efforts for the City of Wilmington. This program is funded in collaboration with NC Division of Coastal Management (DCM), State of North Carolina, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).
Community Action Team (CAT)
The Community Action Team (CAT) is an integral part of the RCCP Planning Process as members have expertise in planning and community development, natural resource management, climate resilience, hazard mitigation, utility management, engineering, the community’s economic needs, engaging with vulnerable and underrepresented populations, and development of nature-based solutions. CAT members were chosen to best represent the community's needs.
The CAT’s roles are defined below for Phase 1 (Community Engagement & Risk/Vulnerability Assessment) and Phase 2 (Planning, Project Identification, and Prioritization) of the RCCP:
Phase 1:
- Help develop a community-specific vision and set of goals to establish the local context for this program and guide subsequent steps
- Select critical assets and natural infrastructure to include within the risk and vulnerability assessment.
- Conduct a review of existing plans, ordinances, policies, and programs to identify work that has already been completed
- Help to define thresholds and criteria that will be used to score assets as low, medium, or high for each vulnerability metric
Phase 2:
- Identify, plan, and prioritize a combination of policy, non-structural, structural, and hybrid actions, including the use of natural and nature-based solutions
The project team would like to thank the following CAT members for their time and dedication to this project:
- Craig Harris, City of Wilmington - Emergency Management
- Hillary Taylor, City of Wilmington - Planning
- Aaron Beckner, City of Wilmington - Stormwater
- Kathryn Thurston, City of Wilmington - Floodplain Administrator
- Jason Carter, City of Wilmington - Engineering
- David Ingram, City of Wilmington - Sustainability
- Anna Reh-Gingerich, City of Wilmington - Watershed Restoration
- Dr. Meredith Hovis, UNC Wilmington, Economics
- Greer Templer, Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization, Transportation
- Gilbert Combs, City of Wilmington - Housing
- Ben Riggle, City of Wilmington - Historic Planning
- Jessica Gray, NC Department of Environmental Quality - Flood Resiliency Blueprint
- Genna Wirth, Voyage - Community Organization
- Christina Daley, Wilmington Downtown - Supporting Downtown Businesses
- Madelyn Wampler, New Hanover County - Sustainability
- Daniel Adams, Cape Fear Council of Government, Local Government Support
- Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch, Community Engagement
- Dr. Joanne Halls, UNC Wilmington, Geospatial Director
What's Next?
Photo Credit: North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Upon completion of Phases 1 & 2 in September 2026, New Hanover County will then be eligible to apply for funding via Phases 3 and 4 of the Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP). The following project phases are described below.
- Phase 1: Risk and Vulnerability Assessment - Communities assess their specific climate-related risks and vulnerabilities through stakeholder engagement and data-driven analysis.
- Phase 2: Project Identification and Prioritization – A community-and data-driven process to identify priority actions that can be taken to adapt to short- and long-term hazards. Based on the assessments, communities develop a portfolio of prioritized resilience projects tailored to their needs.
- Phase 3: Engineering and Design - Phase 3 is the engineering, design, and permitting of the prioritized projects identified in Phase 2. Competitive grants will be available for communities that successfully completed Phases 1 and 2 to design shovel ready projects.
- Phase 4: Project Implementation and Construction - Phase 4 competitive grants will be available for communities that successfully completed Phases 1, 2, and 3 for the actual construction and implementation of the resilience projects, ensuring communities are prepared to address the identified hazards.
For more information, please reference the Phase 3 and 4 grant award notice: State awards nearly $6 million in coastal resiliency grants to 32 communities for planning, engineering, design, and construction | NC DEQ
Additional Resources
For more information about relevant data sources and other tools for understanding flood risk, including the effects of storm surge, coastal flooding, and sea level rise, please visit the following state and national websites:
Available Presentations and Downloads
We will continue to add to this archive as materials are prepared, refined, and released. Planning resources, such as CAT meeting slides, FEMA documents, and the RCCP Handbook are available for download.