{"id":97916,"date":"2024-09-27T16:17:36","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T16:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=97916"},"modified":"2025-03-18T20:27:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:27:22","slug":"uri-awarded-1-5m-epscor-grant-to-team-with-warren-on-coastal-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/uri-awarded-1-5m-epscor-grant-to-team-with-warren-on-coastal-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 awarded $1.5M EPSCoR grant to team with Warren on coastal resilience<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 27, 2024 \u2013 Sitting on Narragansett Bay in northeastern Rhode Island, the town of Warren is highly vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise and flooding due to its low elevation. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projections, the sea level is projected to rise 1.6 feet by 2050 \u2013 2.29 feet by 2060 \u2013 worsening the conditions that Warren faces under normal tide ranges, not to mention flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting this fall, a multidisciplinary team of scientists from the 溏心vlog免费B站 will begin working with stakeholders in Warren to address worsening climate hazards that are affecting coastal communities, including flooding and salinization, as part of a three-state collaboration backed by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinding solutions to this very complex problem requires experts with a range of expertise to provide the support and information necessary to enable community members to make important decisions,\u201d said Emi Uchida, principal investigator of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s $1.5 million grant, and professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Natural Resource Economics. \u201cSo, we\u2019re bringing together experts in behavioral economics, natural sciences, engineering, public policy, and stakeholder engagement to provide the information communities need to empower them to make adaptation decisions that ensure climate resilience to flooding and salinization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project \u2013 \u201cRisks, Impacts, and Strategies for Coastal Communities: Advancing Convergent Science to Support Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience\u201d \u2013 is a collaboration of three states \u2013 Rhode Island, Delaware, and South Carolina. The $6 million, four-year initiative is led by the University of Delaware, and benefits from wide partnerships of researchers and stakeholders in each state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese three states are among the top 10 low-lying states in the U.S.,\u201d said Uchida. \u201cThe coastal communities in these states are going to experience more flooding and that comes with surface and groundwater flooding, as well as increasing salinity levels in waters and soil. This is really where the impact is going to be felt. So, this type of research is really needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative is part of the NSF\u2019s $77.8 million program to increase climate resilience by supporting 14 projects \u2013 overseen by 50 institutions in 21 jurisdictions \u2013 through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. EPSCoR\u2019s Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations program (RII-FEC) supports interdisciplinary research teams working across jurisdictions to advance climate change research and build resilience in disproportionately affected communities nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uchida heads a multidisciplinary team that includes 溏心vlog免费B站 co-principal investigators Christopher Russoniello, assistant professor of geosciences; Pengfei Liu, associate professor of environmental and natural resource economics; and Mehrshad Amini, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and ocean engineering; along with Eliza Berry, a climate resilience specialist with the Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant; and Nathan Vinhateiro, science director of the Coastal Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of us operate in a vacuum,\u201d said Russoniello. \u201cAll of us work together to achieve a goal, which is providing the best information to these communities. And any one of us alone can\u2019t factor in all the different pieces that need to be considered. That\u2019s why we really want to lean on the social scientists who can tell us what is most valuable for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren was chosen \u2013 along with Little Creek and Delaware Bay beaches, and Edisto Island in South Carolina \u2013 because it is disproportionately affected by climate change and sea-level rise on the Atlantic coast, which faces nearly twice the global rate of sea-level rise. Among the factors considered were Warren\u2019s flood and salinization risks, and potential for high flood damage to infrastructure, Amini said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

溏心vlog免费B站 researchers will evaluate these areas and more, helping Warren community members devise climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The project will also advance scientific knowledge on how disproportionately affected coastal communities deal with and adapt to flooding and salinization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project builds on existing relationships with stakeholders in Warren who will help organize community meetings, workshops and surveys, said Berry, who will oversee community engagement and ensure the research meets the stakeholders\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt certain points during the project, we\u2019ll be surveying stakeholders to understand what their priorities are for climate adaptation,\u201d Berry said. \u201cI want to emphasize that this project is addressing a need articulated by the community. Warren and its residents have been on the forefront of thinking really early and long-term about the potential to retreat from the shoreline. They\u2019re ahead of the curve for coastal communities, and they need help from this kind of applied science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategies to adapt to coastal vulnerability and solutions come at a trade-off, said Uchida. Warren is exploring \u201cmanaged retreat\u201d from the most impacted areas, purposely moving infrastructure or homes to inland areas less at risk. Current discussions include home buyouts of existing buildings \u2013 which could be controversial, Uchida explained \u2013 and redevelopment of a key corridor where current residents can settle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to bring in the science to think about what each of these options mean in terms of reducing that risk of flooding,\u201d said Uchida, \u201cand what it means in terms of people\u2019s well-being so the community can use that information to consider those trade-offs and make science-driven decisions themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four-year initiative started with 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers and Warren residents developing the project, along with ensuring the grant proposal addressed their needs to make informed decisions, Uchida said. \u201cAt the end, we\u2019ll develop a decision-support system that brings each piece of information together, providing decision makers an integrated, helpful platform to consider different alternatives and understand what each means for their communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third year, members of community advisory boards in Delaware and South Carolina will visit Rhode Island to learn from Warren, including its plan for \u201cmanaged retreat.\u201d Some of the principal investigators in both states will also be on hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese modelings will be done with similar approaches, covering three states for comparison,\u201d Uchida said. \u201cWhat we can learn from each state is really what\u2019s going to make this three-state collaboration meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry said the modeling methods, decision support tools, and approaches to engaging communities in this complex problem could be applicable to other low-lying communities that are navigating hard decisions on managing increasing flood risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe project is helping communities to determine what is a decision-making process that we can employ that takes into account our needs and this whole range of sciences,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a difficult thing that I think all coastal communities could benefit from learning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 27, 2024 \u2013 Sitting on Narragansett Bay in northeastern Rhode Island, the town of Warren is highly vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise and flooding due to its low elevation. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projections, the sea level is projected to rise 1.6 feet by 2050 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":97917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1905],"class_list":["post-97916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97920,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916\/revisions\/97920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}