Building a U.S. Coastal Research Program
Motivation and Goal
Recognizing the growing need for a coordinated, National science plan to address societal needs along the coast, a community of researchers from Federal agencies, academia, industry, and NGOs developed a sustained and coordinated U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP)
Identify Future Directions
In March 2014, academic and Federal coastal researchers convened the Future of Nearshore Processes Workshop to develop a research vision that addresses societally-relevant science challenges. The resulting Nearshore Report outlined research priorities as well as recommendations for achieving the shared vision. By 2016, nine federal agencies had agreed to collaborate to implement the recommendations including the development of a National coastal program.
A National Coastal Science Plan
To better understand and demonstrate the current commitment to coastal research in the US, over 260 Federal and non-federal, ongoing coastal science projects were identified, inventoried and categorized. Existing and potential collaborations, as well as areas of societal interest where science is needed, were showcased in the National Plan. It also includes 11 research and infrastructure investment recommendations.
Ongoing Efforts
Building Collaborative Research
To foster additional collaborations, the USCRP hosted the 1st National Nearshore Collaboration Workshop in December 2016, where 14 multi-agency collaborative projects were conceived based on topics and concepts identified in the Nearshore Report and the National Plan. One of these collaborative projects is the During Nearshore Event eXperiment (DuNEX), described above. The study area in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is depicted below.
Storm Processes and Impacts Workshop
April 16-18, 2018
St. Petersburg, FL (Hilton St. Pete Bayfront)
This workshop convened coastal stakeholders across all sectors - academics, government, industry, NGOs - to understand our present capabilities for modeling storm processes, forecasting impacts, and determine/prioritize where advancements are needed. A subsequent call for proposals, resulted in $550,000 from the participating federal agencies to support graduate student research projects that focus on addressing challenges and topics identified in the meeting.
Participants are presently drafting a workshop report that will be released this fall.
2015 Workshop
A national workshop on dune management that brought together managers and researchers to communicate the challenges of dune management. The workshop resulted in the award of over $260,000 in research funding for graduate student research. Fact sheets for four of the research efforts are available below.