We are seeking nominations for a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study on long-term coastal zone dynamics, with a focus on the interactions and feedbacks between natural and human processes and their implications for the U.S. coastline. The Statement of Task for this activity is provided below. This study is sponsored by the Gulf Research Program.
The study will bring together experts from a wide range of disciplines, including civil and coastal engineering, climate change adaptation and resilience, climate science, coastal ecology, coastal geology and geomorphology, energy systems, environmental law and policy, fisheries, natural resource economics, risk management and communications, social and cultural transitions, and solid-Earth geophysics.
We are seeking a broad range of nominees to serve on the study committee. Nominees may have expertise in any relevant scientific discipline listed above or in a related field.
Please enter your suggestions for potential committee members by December 23, 2016.
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee will conduct a study to determine research needed to improve the understanding of long-term (years, decades, centuries) coastal dynamics and the long-term impacts of coastal engineering and development along three types of U.S. coastlines: the barrier island coastlines of the mid-Atlantic, the deltaic coastline of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the tectonically active coastline of the Pacific. The study will also consider how to make such information more useful to coastal communities.
Recognizing the mission and goals of the Gulf Research Program as context, the study will:
1. Identify gaps in scientific and technical understanding of (a) the long-term magnitude and interactions of natural and human physical processes along these three types of coastlines; and (b) the similarities and differences in these processes from coastline to coastline.
2. (a) Define the essential components of a research and development program (e.g., monitoring, data collection and management, modeling, human or biological population surveys, multi-dimensional mapping) in response to the gaps identified in (1); and (b) Develop and set priorities for no more than three critical areas of research to increase understanding of long-term coastal dynamics (e.g., sea-level rise; coastal subsidence, uplift, and erosion; coastal ecosystem evolution; economic development; coastal hazards) in order to advance the science and help inform community choices and decision making in each of the three coastal areas.
3. Identify barriers to, and opportunities for, more effective communication among scientists and coastal communities about improved monitoring, forecasting, mapping, and other data collection and research regarding long-term changes in U.S. coastlines.