IUCRC Planning Grant Louisiana State University: Center for Coastal Deltaic Innovation, Research, & Technology (CDIRT)

The US coastal economy contributes almost $8 trillion to the US gross domestic product (GDP). If considered an individual country, the US coastal GDP would rank number three in the world behind only the economies of the U.S. and China. In a warming world, fraught with sea level rise; subsidence; and human engineering interventions designed to protect communities and installed infrastructure along the shoreline, coastal erosion is taking a serious toll, especially on the mud-dominated Mississippi River deltaic system.

Mississippi River natural processes, driven by both climate change and flood/river control practices, are hampering the ability of our nation’s southern coastal communities and shoreline environments to remain resilient, sustainable, productive, and healthy. This funding provides resources for Louisiana State University to explore the formation of an industry-university cooperative research center (the Center for Deltaic Innovation, Research, and Technology (CDIRT)), a Center focused on combining the strengths, intellectual capacity, and resources of universities, industry, and the public sector in tackling some of the largest problems in mud-dominated, engineered, deltaic systems.

Through a Center planning meeting, Louisiana State University faculty and administrators will engage a broad spectrum of public and private entities to identify and discuss collective needs with the goal of creating a viable research roadmap and associated research thrusts in which partners are willing to participate and fund. Topics related to low cost, fine-grained, sediment transport to improve longshore sediment distribution and the building up of barrier islands and coastal wetlands will be proposed.

In addition, topics involving possible solutions to wetland erosion and regeneration will be discussed as will the use of autonomous robotic vehicles that can help in restoration of wetland vegetation and shoreline stabilization. Broader impacts of the work include: workforce training where students participate in industry-relevant, basic, pre-competitive research projects proposed by university faculty; the engagement of underrepresented groups via partnership with Jackson State University a historically black university; and coastal community and infrastructure sustainability and resilience.

Industry-university cooperative research Centers, like the one proposed to be focused on coastal erosion and its mitigation by Louisiana State University, are powerful partnerships between universities; the private sector; government; non-profits; and local communities. These Centers operate as consortium focused on university faculty and students carrying out fundamental research that addresses collective industry and community needs and where projects are funded by membership fees and other financial contributions from Center members.

In this construct, the intellectual power; infrastructure; and student talent of universities is focused on real world problems of critical interest of a segment of the economy in need of innovation to overcome conceptual and technological hurdles individual entities are unable to do for themselves. The planning meeting proposed will bring together interested parties to hear proto-Center leadership describe the Center’s value proposition and potential return-on-investment of those entities wishing to become members of the Center.

Those at the planning meeting will also help the Center create a research road map and research thrusts that best address the most pressing needs of the collective membership in the Center.

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.