Members of a Virginia House of Delegates’ subcommittee met recently at Gloucester Point to discuss ways to develop a comprehensive and coordinated plan for addressing coastal flooding and sea level rise in the commonwealth.

The legislators, along with a group of citizens, policymakers and researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, met at the school’s Gloucester Point campus on Sept. 21 in a forum that was planned long before the recent flooding throughout Tidewater, said David Malmquist, director of communications at VIMS. Del. Keith Hodges (R-Urbanna) and state Sen. Lynwood Lewis (D-Accomac) were among those in attendance.

The House Joint Subcommittee to Study Recurrent Flooding was convened by Virginia’s General Assembly this past March, Malmquist said, as a follow-up to an earlier joint resolution mandating VIMS to study strategies for adaptation to prevent recurrent flooding throughout Tidewater and the Eastern Shore.

Molly Mitchell of VIMS’...