NCCOS has announced nearly $4.1 million in funding for 16 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 $1M for three new projects funded under its Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) Program. An additional $2.1M is being awarded to support the continuation of eight ongoing ESLR projects. The new projects will develop actionable information and products to help inform coastal flood resilience and risk management in North Carolina, Southwest Florida, and Virginia through sediment analysis, natural infrastructure optimization, and the development of integrated coastal planning frameworks.
- Florida Gulf Coast University and U.S. Geological Survey will analyze sediment movement and model coastal processes to help better manage flood risk in Southwest Florida’s barrier island communities.
- Utah State University, East Carolina University, and University of Central Florida will support three North Carolina communities in enhancing flood resilience by quantifying environmental factors and developing hydrodynamic models to optimize the design, implementation, and management of natural infrastructure projects.
- University of Virginia, Florida International University, and Old Dominion University will develop an innovative and integrated framework for coastal infrastructure planning in three regions of coastal Virginia that experience frequent compound flooding.
An additional $970K investment will fund five projects led by the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) to promote community resilience to water-related challenges.
- Stevens Institute of Technology and University of North Carolina will enhance coastal and inland flood hazard resilience by developing improved methods for estimating historical hurricane winds and pressure.
- University of Minnesota and Northeastern University will enhance the accessibility and communication of Total Water Level (TWL) information in Puerto Rico.
- Colorado School of Mines and Michigan State University will develop a generative AI framework to reconstruct missing river bathymetry in digital elevation models.
- Colorado School of Mines will improve coastal forecast models by utilizing new algorithms to derive satellite-based ice classification and thickness data.
- Coastal Carolina University will create GIS-ready datasets that quantify the flood mitigation benefits of wetlands and nature-based solutions in Charleston Harbor.
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.