Focused CoPe: Building Capacity for Adaptation in Rural Coastal Communities

Saltwater intrusion from accelerated sea-level rise and increased coastal flooding caused by storms is threatening groundwater sustainability. Rural coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to these threats and face unique challenges that are exacerbated by lack of access to scientific information and expertise, by geographical and social isolation, and by lack of effective governmental structure and institutional capacity.

This Hub will integrate environmental and socio-economic data with hydrological and coastal flooding models to quantify environmental risks related to coastal flooding and salt-water intrusion. The Hub broadens participation of traditionally underserved and vulnerable coastal communities by engaging local leaders and the broader community in workshops to co-produce knowledge about increasing coastal resilience and to train them in data literacy.

These activities directly benefit rural coastal communities by reducing inequities of climate risk and promoting long-term climate adaption strategies.

This Focus CoPe Hub will create an integrated network of researchers, policy makers, community stakeholders and educators to equip rural communities to respond to coastal climate impacts. It will develop an interactive, open-source platform called the Climate Equity Atlas that will provide data modeling and visualization tools to empower stakeholders to make effective, equitable climate adaptation decisions.

The Atlas will enable stakeholders to understand how social and economic factors interact with environmental risks that influence decision-making and equity. The results of the research contribute knowledge that can be translated to solutions for groundwater security for rural communities in general.

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.