Active Projects

This project will examine the full impact of buyout programs in two rural communities in the Carolinas applying mixed methods to capture the benefits and costs of this adaptation strategy while addressing the fiscal and equity challenges. This study aims to reach out to rural communities so that perspectives and insights of underserved areas could inform state-level planners as they formulate buyout and other mitigation strategies. By identifying policy adjustments that can nudge take-up rates and by describing micro-mitigation adaptations that can be expanded and replicated, this work aims to improve policy efficacy and potentially lower program costs.

Climate stressors impact not only employees, business facilities, and supply chains, but also customers and clients. Resource constrained coastal small businesses are particularly vulnerable to climate crises, as they are faced with additional barriers to resilience. They often do not have the financial buffer or capacity to sift through information to prepare for, respond to, and recover from episodic events (e.g., hurricanes) and chronic stressors (e.g., more frequent sunny-day flooding and rainstorms of ever-increasing intensity).

Not only do small business owners need to be responsive to climate stressors, they are increasingly expected to contribute to a climate-compatible and future-oriented economy. Sustainable business practices are varied, however, and unlike large corporations, small businesses often lack technical expertise, skills, and resources needed to address climate-driven challenges.

How can business owners position themselves as reliable leaders of climate preparedness, confronting multiple interacting climate-related stressors? How can community-scale, climate compatible solutions improve resilience for the small business community? To help answer these research questions, the project team will measure the impact “theory of change” and “social capital” have on a sample of small businesses in Charleston, South Carolina.

Improving weather and climate resilience and scientific literacy can be achieved through capacity-building initiatives that empower situationally vulnerable communities with the knowledge and skills to prepare for a natural hazard to lessen its chances of becoming a disaster. Therefore, we aim to expand and formally evaluate educational modules as part of the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience initiative. This program is an emerging disaster preparedness educational initiative that consists of materials for educators to teach to youth about hurricanes and flooding hazards. This initiative was founded in 2016 by a science literacy specialist, communication specialist, and artist, Dr. Merrie Koester. Instead of positioning kids as vulnerable, helpless, weak, or powerless, Kids Teaching Flood Resilience seeks to train teachers and education leaders how to legitimize and empower youth ages 11-15 as essential community resources for disaster preparedness and resilience.

As a weather and scientific literacy program, Kids Teaching Flood Resilience is grounded in best-practices for effective public science communication and culturally responsive, place-based community engagement. It is also rooted in standards-based science teaching. Throughout the initiative, there is a focus on teachers and students knowing what to notice, know, and do before a hurricane or other extreme weather events and being able to persuasively communicate those messages. Students will employ critical thinking, place-based analysis, model-based inquiry, and digital media arts to document and communicate about hurricane and flood hazard risk, stormwater management and water quality challenges, water safety practices, saltmarsh ecosystem services, and environmental justice.

While some educational materials have been developed for this initiative so far, we propose to thoughtfully expand and situate the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience modules under five thematic domains: (1) Get Weather Smart, (2) Get Place-Wise, (3) Get Storm Surge Smart, (4) Get Prep Ready, and (5) Get Water Safe. A multidisciplinary and diverse team of Thought Leaders (i.e., teachers, scientists, engineers, emergency management specialists, higher education scholars, and artists) will contribute to and inform module development to ensure the modules are culturally responsive and scientifically informed. Additionally, a cohort of middle school teachers will help guide the development of the modules, and they will field test newly developed Kids Teaching Flood Resilience modules in their classrooms.

The Kids Teaching Flood Resilience modules will be evaluated by an external evaluator, and teachers will provide suggested modifications based on their field testing of the materials. An interactive Field Guide, Kids Teaching Flood Resilience: Step Up! Get Ready! Respond!, will be published and be publicly available after the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience initiative is finalized. The Field Guide will document all necessary resources for teachers to implement the modules in their classroom and will include specific guidance or best practices on how to engage with local leaders to ensure the application of the initiative is culturally responsive to other regions.

Coastal communities face growing and compounding risks that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change and sea-level rise. With nearly twice the global rates of sea-level rise, the U.S. Atlantic seaboard is particularly vulnerable and some communities are disproportionately affected. Advancing our scientific understanding of the physical risks and vulnerabilities to coastal hazards, such as flooding and salinization, is essential for identifying vulnerable communities and assessing how threats are likely to impact the wellbeing of people in these areas. The Risks, Impacts, & Strategies for Coastal Communities (RISCC) project brings together researchers and community stakeholders from three EPSCoR jurisdictions representing the lowest-lying states in the country: Delaware, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. The overarching goal of the project is to empower disproportionately affected communities to make effective and inclusive adaptation decisions that support long-term climate resilience to threats of flooding and salinization. To accomplish this goal, the RISCC team will build convergent and translational research and workforce development infrastructure that integrates behavioral and natural sciences, engineering, economics, public policy, planning, education, and outreach. The team will advance the assessment of risks and vulnerabilities to compounding hazards, identify effective adaptation strategies that are supported by coastal residents and decision makers, develop decision support system innovations based on iterative feedback from users in our partner communities, and create novel education and outreach materials that will enhance the capacity of disproportionately affected communities to increase resilience to climate change threats through evidence-based planning and adaptation. This project is a collaboration among the University of Delaware, University of Rhode Island, College of Charleston, University of South Carolina, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Delaware Technical Community College, and The Citadel, in partnership with community organizations representing the interests of Little Creek and Delaware Bay beaches, Delaware; the city of Warren, Rhode Island; and Edisto Island, South Carolina.

The project will advance scientific knowledge on how disproportionately affected coastal communities experience and effectively adapt to flooding and salinization. The research team will accomplish this goal with seven objectives: (1) co-develop solutions with partner communities to support sustainable adaptation decisions, (2) develop comprehensive geospatial datasets to advance the assessment of flood vulnerability and mitigation suitability, (3) model and map groundwater flooding and salinization risks, (4) quantify the economic impacts of flooding and salinization, and analyze different community preferences for adaptation strategies, (5) understand how local decision makers assess and plan for climate hazards, (6) integrate research outcomes from natural and social sciences and engineering to develop decision support systems that our disproportionately impacted partner communities (and communities like them) can use to determine which adaptation strategies will likely be effective now and in the future, and (7) prepare diverse researchers and decision makers to understand the science and implementation of coastal adaptation through education, outreach, and workforce development. Faculty and researchers from diverse institutions will co-create education, outreach, and workforce development materials, which will be widely communicated among racially and culturally diverse students and stakeholders. Outreach activities will include the development of a documentary film for national distribution via the PBS network to increase public scientific literacy and promote public engagement with science on climate change hazards and adaptation. This project is funded by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations (RII-FEC) program. The RII-FEC program builds inter-jurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in focus areas consistent with the NSF Strategic Plan. RII-FEC projects include researchers from at least two EPSCoR eligible jurisdictions with complementary expertise and resources necessary to address challenges, which neither party could address as well or as rapidly independently.  

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.

The Near Center for Climate Studies intends to install a Surface Elevation Table (SET) station to monitor how the Citadel marshes respond to the dredging of the Citadel creek, which could support the development of a beneficial use project. Furthermore, the SET station will be in close proximity to a SECOORA funded tide gauge (hohonu-104_the_citadel_ashley_ri) and a MetOne research grade weather station. Thus, the NCCS can link major tidal and weather events to sedimentation and marsh health.

This pilot project, was developed as a result of NOAA’s regional collaboration teams “climate and equity roundtables” held in 2021 to address needs discovered during the roundtables surrounding urban heat health. Using data from the July 2021 CAPA Charleston Heat Watch Campaign, part of the Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign, a pilot community will be selected and engaged to conduct in-depth monitoring through the use of personal and in-home monitoring devices and environmental data. A table top exercise of a heat or complex heat/flooding event will allow decision-makers and community members to identify actions possible to ensure the safety of the residents.