$2.9 Million Awarded for Research to Inform Coastal Resilience and Adaptation

NCCOS has announced nearly $2.9 million in funding for 20 projects that will help facilitate informed adaptation planning and coastal management decisions on the effects of sea level rise and evaluate the use of natural infrastructure to mitigate coastal vulnerability and risk.

NCCOS has awarded $942K for two new projects funded under its Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) Program. An additional $775K is being awarded to support the continuation of 14 ongoing ESLR projects. The new projects will develop actionable information and products to help inform and evaluate the use of natural infrastructure for coastal protection against flood and erosion in California and rural western Alaska.

• George Mason University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Anchorage, and Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys will advance the co-production of natural infrastructure for coastal resilience and protection in Alaska Native communities
• Greater Farallones Association, U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary will evaluate the longevity and varied benefits of beaches and dunes using data-driven modeling in California

NCCOS has also awarded $150K for one project funded under the U.S. IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT). COMT projects are designed to assess the performance of existing models, create new model code and tools, inform and train users, and build a repository of evaluation data sets to expand and improve modeling capabilities.

• University of Georgia will evaluate the accuracy of four existing marsh models and their usefulness to wetland managers to help advance coastal marsh predictions

An additional $1M investment will fund three projects led by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) to promote community resilience to water-related challenges.

• The Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Institute of Marine Science will increase the accuracy of NOAA’s forecasting portfolio by integrating advanced 3D modeling of temperature and salinity within the coastal transition zone (where freshwater meets saltwater) in coastal Louisiana
• The University of Alabama, University of Vermont and University of Iowa will develop a think tank envisioning CIROH’s unique opportunities to advance water quality forecasting and better inform future investments at a national scale
• The University of Minnesota, University of Maryland, and University of Vermont will evaluate the communication of Total Water Levels visualizations, and enhance the ability of NOAA and coastal emergency managers to help communities prepare for, respond to, and manage coastal flood risk

These efforts will collectively enhance the ability of coastal communities to plan for, absorb, recover from, or more successfully adapt to flooding as a result of sea level rise.

This work is authorized by the NOAA Authorization Act of 1992, Pub. L. 102-567 (Oct. 29, 1992); sec. 201(c), which authorizes appropriation for the NCCOS Competitive Research Program to augment and integrate existing programs of NOAA, and shall include efforts to improve predictions of coastal hazards to protect human life and personal property.

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