The Coastal Green Shield Initiative
The junior team’s winning action plan combats the effects of rising sea levels by planting salt-tolerant vegetation in coastal communities.
Summary
Our initiative will combat the effects of rising sea levels by planting salt-tolerant vegetation in coastal communities. These plants will aerate the soil limiting flooding when it happens. They will also absorb water and release it into the atmosphere. This will strengthen the shoreline and defend communities against flooding. It will be sustainable, low-cost, and eco-friendly. The solution also lend itself to volunteer participation, raising awareness of climate change among locals and visitors.
Action Plan
Summary:
Our initiative will combat the effects of rising sea levels by planting salt-tolerant vegetation in coastal communities. These plants will aerate the soil limiting flooding when it happens. They will also absorb water and release it into the atmosphere. This will strengthen the shoreline and defend communities against flooding. It will be sustainable, low-cost, and eco-friendly. The solution also lend itself to volunteer participation, raising awareness of climate change among locals and visitors.
One sentence solution:
We will plant climate-appropriate salt-tolerant vegetation in coastal communities to aerate soil and help absorb water.
Describe the steps you will take to implement your best solution, in order.
| What | Who | Description |
| Identify several coastal communities at risk for flooding | Founders of this initiative (our team) | Find locations around the world at risk for coastal flooding, make sure the area is relatively easily accessible, and has enough free space for planting vegetation |
| Partner with local governments | Our team | Meet with local governments to explain the goals and reasons, get their buy-in for the project |
| Educate local residents | Our team, marketing team | Connect with local residents to explain the goals and reasons, set expectations for vegetation changes, create website that is easy to understand |
| Raise funding | Our team, fundraising team, donors, local businesses | Pitch idea for philanthropic organizations, obtain donations to support our team and contractors, connect with local businesses to help with fundraising |
| Hire/partner with experts and scientists | Our team, plant and climate experts/scientists | Hire plant biologists and climate experts to partner with using funding portion. Determine appropriate salt-tolerant plants for each climate, soil type and location. Determine optimal dates for planting. We will find out what materials to purchase with their help. |
| Determine cost | Business team | Determine cost of project at each geographic location. |
| Purchase/ get materials | Our team, management team | Get donations from local plant nurseries, Purchase materials, determine logistics for deliveries, organize donations from local businesses |
| Partner with local nurseries | Our team, local plant nurseries | Raise plants for local re-population to address flooding risk |
| Recruit volunteers | Our team, marketing team | Start online campaign to promote our project, visit university campuses, raise awareness and build excitement to get volunteers for execution of project |
| Execution of planting | Our team, volunteers, plant scientists | Organize “mission”-style trips for out-of-town volunteers and local community “planting day” events to plant chosen vegetation. |
| Maintain plants & infrastructure | Our team, maintenance team | Maintain a team to check on the health of the plants (check every 1-2 months) |
| Determine effectiveness of intervention | Our team and scientists | Monitor frequency of flooding |
| Keep donors posted, keep donations going | Our team, marketing experts | Explain progress to donors(and businesses that are donating to the cause) so that donations will continue |
How does your action plan address your goal?
Rising sea levels are threatening coastal communities through soil erosion, flooding, and loss of tourism revenue. Traditional solutions such as seawalls are expensive and harm ecosystems. Communities need a cost-effective, natural solution that strengthens coastlines while preserving beauty and biodiversity. Our initiative lowers flooding risks using a permanent solution by planting native, salt-tolerant vegetation along the coast. This will absorb excess water, aerate soil, address erosion, release moisture through transpiration, improve landscape for locals and tourists.
How will you know if you have been successful?
We will monitor the frequency and severity of flooding over time, measure soil aeration and moisture balance, volunteer engagement.
How will your action plan improve the focus area you selected?
The goal is for this intervention is to sustain normal life among the coastal communities despite rising sea levels. These green barriers will hopefully reduce property damage from floods and displacement of people.
How will your action plan make a positive difference overall?
It reduces the impact of rising sea levels with minimally disruptive intervention.
