Lake Michigan stakeholders' perceptions of coastal risk and motivations for coastal habitat stewardship

Lake Michigan communities have already begun to feel the effects of climate change, and research suggests that these areas will experience many phenomena that will negatively impact the ecosystem and human livelihoods (GLISA, 2014). While agencies exist to generally guide coastal management, Michigan lacks institutions that establish regulations or requirements for managing the Great Lakes coastal region (Norton et al., 2018). As a result, Michigan's coastal communities have the responsibility of preparing for an uncertain future under climate change. I compared risk perceptions between different resident groups, as well as between different communities, varying by county, size, and presence of a previous coastal resiliency program. I used a four-wave tailored design for data collection (Dillman, 2009) in six Michigan communities along Lake Michigan from December 2018 to April 2019. I found communities with resiliency programs are less concerned about coastal risk than other communities and lake residents are more concerned about coastal risk than municipal officials. I also found that previous experience with environmental risk and gender are predictors of concern about coastal risk. I suggest that future outreach materials focus on lake residents and that community-engaged work to create more robust coastal resilience plans are beneficial to mitigating risk perceptions. The results from this research can also be used to inform future planning and zoning policies, as well as other coastal resilience policies.