
Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative (AMRI)
Background
Living and working in Annapolis offers the beauty and benefits of being close to the water. However, sea level rise, flooding, and shoreline and stream bank erosion are becoming significant challenges to this area, threatening our infrastructure, neighborhoods, and environment.
What is AMRI?
The Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative (AMRI) is designed to address these challenges in the Spa Creek and Back Creek watersheds located in and around Eastport. As a partnership between the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County and the City of Annapolis, AMRI aims to improve local infrastructure and environmental, economic, and social resilience. AMRI will do this by working with communities to:

Identify and prioritize critical sites impacted by flooding, erosion, and sea level rise in the Spa Creek and Back Creek watersheds located in and around Eastport

Select nature-based solutions that use native plants, trees, sand, and rocks to address these urgent challenges

Create initial design of top critical sites
AMRI seeks to demonstrate that resilience strategies done at the community scale can provide more collective protection than when they are done randomly or one at a time.
AMRI Objectives
By the end of 2025, AMRI will complete the community engagement process described above and partial design of select critical sites. These efforts will lay the foundation for future design and implementation phases. Our long-term goals include:
- Enhanced ecosystem and community resilience;
- Improved habitat and water quality;
- Increased public waterfront and open space access, particularly for underserved communities;
- Community education on flooding, erosion, and sea level rise and solutions to address them;
- Improved community health and well-being;
- Support for related state and local programmatic objectives, including the City of Annapolis and its public infrastructure improvements to mitigate seal level rise and prevent nuisance flooding.
Community-Oriented Approach
AMRI has prioritized community collaboration and engagement throughout its discovery process. Our approach has included partnering with local residents to identify vulnerable sites, prioritize those that need the most immediate attention, and help select nature-based solutions tailored to each site.
As part of our commitment to ensure the process is inclusive and representative, we have sought community input from community leaders and organizations, local businesses, underrepresented groups, watershed experts, scientists, and engineers, among others. We have engaged with community members in one-on-one interviews, public meetings, community meeting presentations, community events, and through surveys. Our collaborative approach aims to build lasting relationships that will inform future resilience efforts.
Project Boundaries
AMRI focuses on the Spa Creek and Back Creek watersheds in and around Eastport.

Progress Report
Based on community input gathered in a robust outreach effort, the AMRI team has identified 39 sites of concern within the project boundaries. Explore these sites in this detailed map.
From here, the AMRI team will evaluate each location based on an array of factors that include resiliency impact, project feasibility, green infrastructure network potential, and social impact.
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