The Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) framework: an effective, field-tested approach for engaging stakeholders

The Action-Oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow (ASERT) framework enables a participatory approach for adaptation actions related to social-ecological resilience to sea level rise. This framework was field-tested in the Hampton Roads region of coastal Southeastern Virginia in 2016. Results show that structured public involvement, through collaborative sessions that couple geospatial and visualization tools with dialogic processes, improves the quality of information co-produced with stakeholders. The four key principles of ASERT—(1) an inclusive process, (2) an emphasis on gaining local knowledge and context, (3) integrated engagement, and (4) an explicit focus on incorporation of change mechanisms—can provide both policymakers and stakeholders with a dialogic approach that can better inform planning efforts to use local resources to build social-ecological resilience.