Highway 12 along the Outer Banks of North Carolina after Hurricane Dorian. Credit: NCDOT.

The NCCOS Competitive Research Program is pleased to announce its Fiscal Year 2021 Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) for its Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) Program.

The ESLR Program is soliciting proposals to evaluate and quantify the ability of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) to mitigate the effects of sea level rise and inundation (storm surge, nuisance flooding, and/or wave actions). This FFO will support research to inform adaptation planning and coastal management decisions in response to sea level rise and coastal inundation, through advancement of models of physical and biological processes capable of evaluating vulnerability and resilience under multiple sea level rise, inundation, and management scenarios, including evaluation of nature based solutions. The opportunity has two focal areas; coastal resilience and surface transportation resilience.

Coastal Resilience: The coastal resilience focus area requests proposals that  inform actions to mitigate the risk of inundation  on coastal ecosystems, communities, and infrastructure. NCCOS expects to fund two to four projects for two to four years under the Coastal Resilience focus area at a level of approximately $200,000 to $400,000 per year per proposal. All proposals must consider natural and nature-based feature approaches.

Surface Transportation Resilience: The surface transportation focus area focuses specifically on projects that evaluate natural and hybrid options that consider conventional and natural aspects for mitigating impacts to surface transportation infrastructure (i.e., roads, public transportation, and rail). It includes development of improved methods of predicting pavement deterioration for roadways by accounting for repeated coastal flooding events. NCCOS expects to fund two to four projects of two to four years under the Surface Transportation Resilience focus area at a level of approximately $200,000 to $500,000 per year per proposal. The findings from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Nature-based Resilience for Coastal Highways project informed the development of priorities for Surface Transportation Resilience funding.

As part of evaluating NNBF benefits to surface transportation infrastructure, the FFO is seeking to develop improved methods of predicting pavement deterioration for roadways by accounting for  repeated coastal flooding events. The research will not only provide transportation agencies with a methodology to estimate the extent, timing, frequency, and costs of future coastal flooding on roadways but will also assess the effectiveness of different asset protection strategies.

The deadline for Letters of Intent for both focus areas is October 16, 2020, and for full applications is January 7, 2021. View the full FFO here.