Collaborative Research: RII FEC: Risks, Impacts, & Strategies for Coastal Communities: Advancing Convergent Science to Support Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience

Coastal communities face growing and compounding risks that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change and sea-level rise. With nearly twice the global rates of sea-level rise, the U.S. Atlantic seaboard is particularly vulnerable and some communities are disproportionately affected. Advancing our scientific understanding of the physical risks and vulnerabilities to coastal hazards, such as flooding and salinization, is essential for identifying vulnerable communities and assessing how threats are likely to impact the wellbeing of people in these areas. The Risks, Impacts, & Strategies for Coastal Communities (RISCC) project brings together researchers and community stakeholders from three EPSCoR jurisdictions representing the lowest-lying states in the country: Delaware, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. The overarching goal of the project is to empower disproportionately affected communities to make effective and inclusive adaptation decisions that support long-term climate resilience to threats of flooding and salinization. To accomplish this goal, the RISCC team will build convergent and translational research and workforce development infrastructure that integrates behavioral and natural sciences, engineering, economics, public policy, planning, education, and outreach. The team will advance the assessment of risks and vulnerabilities to compounding hazards, identify effective adaptation strategies that are supported by coastal residents and decision makers, develop decision support system innovations based on iterative feedback from users in our partner communities, and create novel education and outreach materials that will enhance the capacity of disproportionately affected communities to increase resilience to climate change threats through evidence-based planning and adaptation. This project is a collaboration among the University of Delaware, University of Rhode Island, College of Charleston, University of South Carolina, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Delaware Technical Community College, and The Citadel, in partnership with community organizations representing the interests of Little Creek and Delaware Bay beaches, Delaware; the city of Warren, Rhode Island; and Edisto Island, South Carolina.The project will advance scientific knowledge on how disproportionately affected coastal communities experience and effectively adapt to flooding and salinization. The research team will accomplish this goal with seven objectives: (1) co-develop solutions with partner communities to support sustainable adaptation decisions, (2) develop comprehensive geospatial datasets to advance the assessment of flood vulnerability and mitigation suitability, (3) model and map groundwater flooding and salinization risks, (4) quantify the economic impacts of flooding and salinization, and analyze different community preferences for adaptation strategies, (5) understand how local decision makers assess and plan for climate hazards, (6) integrate research outcomes from natural and social sciences and engineering to develop decision support systems that our disproportionately impacted partner communities (and communities like them) can use to determine which adaptation strategies will likely be effective now and in the future, and (7) prepare diverse researchers and decision makers to understand the science and implementation of coastal adaptation through education, outreach, and workforce development. Faculty and researchers from diverse institutions will co-create education, outreach, and workforce development materials, which will be widely communicated among racially and culturally diverse students and stakeholders. Outreach activities will include the development of a documentary film for national distribution via the PBS network to increase public scientific literacy and promote public engagement with science on climate change hazards and adaptation. This project is funded by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations (RII-FEC) program. The RII-FEC program builds inter-jurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in focus areas consistent with the NSF Strategic Plan. RII-FEC projects include researchers from at least two EPSCoR eligible jurisdictions with complementary expertise and resources necessary to address challenges, which neither party could address as well or as rapidly independently.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.