Building Resilience Together: A Georgia Climate Digest Interview

Chapters

00:00 Meet Jennifer Kline 

00:45 Jennifer’s Role with Georgia DNR’s Coastal Resources Division 

01:29 How Jennifer Found Her Way into Coastal Hazards Work 

03:15 The Biggest Climate Challenges Facing Coastal Georgia 

05:28 Building Disaster Recovery Plans for All 11 Coastal Counties 

06:35 Why Wetland Protection Is Critical to Climate Resilience 

09:04 Introducing the Georgia Resiliency Conference 

11:54 Who Should Attend, and What to Expect 

14:22 What’s Giving Jennifer Kline Hope

Resilience in Georgia can mean many different things, from installing community microgrids that keep the lights on after a storm, to upgrading infrastructure to withstand flooding, to preserving the fragile coastal wetlands that buffer us from severe storms.

That’s exactly what the upcoming Georgia Resiliency Conference is designed to spotlight. Hosted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the event brings together policymakers, business leaders, researchers, community advocates, and everyday citizens to learn from more than 100 Georgia-based resilience projects.

In this edition of the Georgia Climate Digest interview series, host Eriqah Vincent sits down with Jennifer Kline, Coastal Hazards Specialist with Georgia DNR’s Coastal Resources Division, to talk about why resilience matters now more than ever.

What Makes Flooding on Georgia’s Coast So Different?

Jennifer explains that coastal Georgia deals with flooding that inland areas never see, from storm surge during hurricanes to routine high tide flooding that can combine with heavy rain to overwhelm aging infrastructure. She and Eriqah also discuss why storm surge, not the hurricane itself, was the major driver of damage during events like Hurricane Katrina.

How Did Georgia Build the Nation’s First Fully Resilient Coast?

After watching Superstorm Sandy devastate the mid-Atlantic in 2012, Jennifer’s team at DNR launched a decade-long effort to build disaster recovery and redevelopment plans for all 11 of Georgia’s coastal counties, making Georgia the first state with a fully resilient coast built on FEMA’s National Disaster Recovery Framework. That same planning template later helped southwest Georgia recover after Hurricane Michael.

Why Are Wetlands Georgia’s First Line of Defense?

Jennifer breaks down why wetlands matter so much for coastal resilience: they store and filter water, provide habitat, stabilize shorelines, and absorb storm energy before it reaches communities. As sea levels rise, protecting the ability of salt marshes to migrate inland without barriers is critical to reducing erosion along the coast.

What’s Happening at the Georgia Resiliency Conference?

Held only twice before, in 2016 and 2021, the Georgia Resiliency Conference returns to Jekyll Island on October 20–21, 2025. This year’s event will spotlight 108 Georgia-based projects and 11 from out of state, with keynotes from Dr. Wayne Clough, former Georgia Tech president and Smithsonian secretary, and Monica Thornton of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. Jennifer describes an audience that spans retirees, church groups, researchers, and local governments. “If you’re interested in the topic, there’s something for everyone,” she says.

Whether you work in local government, conservation, or simply want to see the resilience work already happening across Georgia, this conversation offers an encouraging look at what’s possible when communities plan ahead.

What You’ll Learn

• Why coastal Georgia faces multiple, distinct types of flooding beyond what inland areas experience.
• How Georgia became the first state with a fully resilient coast under FEMA’s national framework.
• How that same disaster recovery planning template helped southwest Georgia after Hurricane Michael.
• Why wetlands are considered Georgia’s first line of defense against storms.
• What to expect at the 2025 Georgia Resiliency Conference on Jekyll Island.
• What gives Jennifer Kline hope about the future of resilience work in Georgia.

Continue reading in our companion blog for additional details on the Georgia Resiliency Conference and why protecting wetlands is a key element of climate resilience in our state.

Download the Interview Transcript

Prefer to read the conversation instead? Download the complete PDF transcript of this interview with Jennifer Kline to explore her insights on coastal flooding, wetland protection, and the Georgia Resiliency Conference.