Coastal Solutions - Ocean Visions

“Developing an integrated coastal research community focused on transforming knowledge into equitable solution actions for climate adaptation and resilience”

Sea level rise (SLR), flooding, deposition, and erosion represent major threats to coastal communities and society along the world-ocean coastlines where the effects of climate change are increasing the frequency and amplitude of hurricanes, coastal storm surges, extreme rainfall, river discharge, and tidal- related flooding. It is critical and urgent that we develop the fundamental knowledge and tools to design optimal and equitable adaptive coastal resilience strategies against the threats of climate change that integrate innovations from science, technology and governance.

The creation and evaluation of coastal solutions strategies to the emerging pressures of climate is highly dependent on the specific attributes and needs of the target community (e.g. economic, social, environmental and technical). Planning adaptation and resilience across a range of scales along with integrating the human, infrastructure and environmental dimensions of complex coastal communities, requires comprehensive planning frameworks that are informed by, and integrate, the input of sector-specific models, data, and analyses, combined with a well-structured interaction between domain-specific experts and end-users.

Co-Chairs

AR Siders

Mark Merrifield

Jill Gambill

Emanuele Di Lorenzo

Renee Collini

Laura Engeman

Coastal Solutions Workshop 2020-2021

Modeling, Predictions, & Observing Networks for Coastal Flooding

In recent years, there has been significant progress in the United States coastal flood observations, modeling, and forecasting efforts with communities facing more frequent and severe flooding, inundation, and sea-level rise. Many of these products and observations are now designed in active partnership with local and state partners, and are intended to assist community stakeholders with addressing today’s coastal flood hazards and future flooding, inundation, coastal change, and sea-level rise. This workshop series served as a forum for assembling the research community working on these various efforts to improve integration and collaboration among these entities to better serve coastal stakeholders. The workshops showcased case studies for how these products are evolving to meet a range of coastal stakeholder needs for addressing contemporary and future coastal flood hazards.

Towards A U.S. National Pilot Program

A Shared Roadmap for Equitable Coastal Solutions to Climate

Through the coastal solutions workshops, this Ocean Visions task force is collecting a series of case studies that illustrate how researchers and stakeholders are co-developing solutions to flooding along the U.S. coastlines. Informed by 50+ case studies (see below) ar that many shared challenges and opportunities can be addressed through the development of a U.S. National Pilot Program focused on co-designing and deploying A Shared Roadmap for Equitable Coastal Solutions to Climate. The program aims at engaging and funding 20-30 pilot coastal communities to work with experts networks of scientists, engineers, and practitioners (e.g. the human/people infrastructure) to deliver the coastal solution roadmaps. The first draft of this plan was discussed at the Ocean Visions Summit 2021 in Session 2a on May 18, 11AM – 2:30PM PDT. We will continue to update this website as the work of the task force evolves. Below is an overview video of the pilot. A video of the panel discussion will be posted soon.

Case Studies for U.S. East, West, & Gulf Coasts

This is a collection of case studies featuring projects or efforts where researchers and stakeholders are co-designing and/or deploying observing network and modeling for coastal flooding solutions along the US coasts.

Projects Case Studies satisfy each of the following characteristics:

Research that includes coastal observing networks and/or coastal modeling and prediction for coastal flooding and sea-level rise applications
Either ongoing projects both funded or unfunded, and/or terminated in the last 2 years
Projects wherein researchers co-design and/or co-deploy with stakeholders at the city/county/state level (federal stakeholders not included for now)
Each project case study should be a separate independent submission. If you have more than one case study you wish to contribute please submit separately (multiple submission allowed)

Download Projects Full Survey Data