Staff Spotlight: Nicole Carlozo

Nicole Carlozo is a Natural Resource Resiliency Planner for the Chesapeake and Coastal Service. Specializing in coastal resiliency and spatial analysis, she works to integrate climate change and coastal data into the state’s conservation, restoration and waterfront planning activities.

Nicole came to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as a Coastal Management Fellow from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help inform the siting of water quality best management practices. Previously, she worked with the North Carolina Chapter of the Nature Conservancy on living shoreline suitability analyses to support integration of oyster reefs and seagrasses into Coastal Climate Adaptation activities. She earned her Master’s Degree in Coastal Environmental Management and Certificate in Geospatial Analysis from Duke University, and her Bachelors’s Degree in Biology and English from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

As a Resiliency Planner, I work with scientists, land managers, restoration practitioners, and state and local partners to ensure that our state is making responsible, science-based and community-driven investments in coastal resources. Working with a wide range of experts means that my job is never boring; I am continually learning about new research, on-the-ground management practices and community stories. We bring together local knowledge and state data to inform conservation and restoration decisions along Maryland’s coast.

I’m often thinking about Maryland’s resilience to climate change and how restoration can help our natural environment and communities withstand and recover from its impacts. Climate science warns us that the Mid-Atlantic region will experience rising seas, increased flooding, changes in precipitation patterns and hotter summer days. Maryland is actually already witnessing these changes, from an increase in sunny-day flooding in coastal cities to flash floods in non-coastal cities to submergence of tidal wetlands.

As global sea levels rise, coastal lands sink and more extreme weather affects our state, coastal habitats and healthy watersheds provide the first line of defense.

Many people appreciate nature for its aesthetic value or for fishing and hunting opportunities, but don’t fully realize its broader benefits to society. Dunes, forests, oyster reefs, seagrasses and wetlands naturally defend our coast against coastal hazards. Healthy streams, floodplains and forest buffers also protect our non-tidal areas from flood impacts. Through strategic restoration, we can make sure that coastal habitats are healthy enough to withstand and recover from intense storms, and that our floodplains can slow, intercept and filter water. In turn, these features help buffer communities from the brunt of high energy events like hurricanes, impede flood waters and even cool air temperature during hot days. Unlike structural “gray” infrastructure, natural “green” infrastructure thrives over time, only increasing in its effectiveness and stability.

The department is targeting restoration to enhance resilience to climate change via a new initiative called Resiliency through Restoration. Maryland’s Coastal Resiliency Assessment identifies shorelines and marshes that provide coastal protection benefits to vulnerable populations and targets areas where natural features can make the greatest impact. We are now completing six climate-resilient demonstration projects in targeted locations where natural features can reduce the impacts of flooding and erosion. These projects range from living shorelines to wetland enhancement, Bay island protection to beneficial use of dredge material.

Lessons learned from planning to practice will support a wider breadth of projects across the state. Project by project, we are helping Maryland’s vulnerable populations, economy and environment become more resilient.