<b>Barriers to and Opportunities for Climate Change Adaptations in Rhode Island</b>

<p dir="ltr">Climate change impacts on coastal communities can have devastating impacts both in the short-term and long-term timeframes. While these impacts can be mitigated by various climate change adaptations, studies have shown a lack of engagement or willingness at the household-level and community-level to implement these adaptations. These barriers have been identified through various locations, frameworks, and theories, which can help distinguish strategies that may be the most impactful in different community contexts. This research utilized a mixed methods approach to understand the barriers preventing climate change adaptation implementation throughout Rhode Island, USA. Our research determined that multiple frameworks and theories can be helpful in developing approaches to improve engagement of individuals and municipal governments with the environmental organizations throughout Rhode Island including the Collaborative Governance Framework, Trust Ecology in Natural Resources Management, and Community-based Adaptation Frameworks. Finally, we established that Rhode Island residents’ general risk perception can be described using the Protection Motivation Theory and the Community Capitals Framework. Combing these two theories allowed us to understand the general patterns of threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and past experience with environmental challenges frequently impacting Rhode Island, but also allowed us to explore how the access to capitals influences a person’s perceived self-efficacy and perceived threat appraisal. Using our combined results, municipal leaders and environmental organizations across communities impacted by climate change can more effectively prepare communities for future climate change risks.</p>