Managed Retreat Toolkit

This resource presents legal and policy tools, best and emerging practices, and case studies to support peer learning and decision making around managed retreat and climate adaptation. The primary audiences for the toolkit are state, territorial, and local policymakers in U.S. coastal jurisdictions. 

Collectively, the toolkit is designed to help policymakers:

• identify and assess a range of legal and policy tools available to facilitate managed retreat in coastal areas experiencing sea level rise, flooding, and land loss;
• highlight the most innovative managed retreat practices that are being deployed at the state and local levels around the country; and
• overcome legal and policy barriers to implementation by providing decision-making frameworks for navigating these barriers and evaluating tradeoffs facing people, communities, and the environment.