CoPe RCN: Advancing Interdisciplinary Research to Build Resilient Communities and Infrastructure in the Nation's Estuaries and Bays

美国海岸有许多海湾和河口，许多大都市都位于其中：切萨皮克湾附近的华盛顿特区、哈德逊河上的纽约市、马萨诸塞湾上的波士顿和旧金山湾上的旧金山，仅举几例。人们刚刚开始了解风暴和海平面上升对河口和海湾的影响，许多问题仍然没有答案。海湾的半封闭性也为开发工程或基于自然的解决方案以保护沿海基础设施和社区带来了一系列独特的挑战和机遇。自然栖息地，如盐沼、牡蛎礁和沙丘，提供具有生态系统效益的海岸保护，但这些结构的有效性和环境影响尚未得到很好的了解。共享的水路网络连接了从城市中心到农村社区的流域不同人口，提出了将社会经济差距和环境因素联系起来的新挑战。COPE RCN将综合来自全国各地现有沿海复原力项目的见解，并提出大胆的新战略，将生态系统增强和恢复结合起来，以保护沿海社区和基础设施。它将通过讲习班和重点小组互动为青年科学家提供跨学科培训。RCN将通过与联邦、州和地方政府、非营利组织和沿海社区的利益攸关方接触，开展强有力的外联活动。其目标是将研究成果转化为制定海岸复原力解决方案的具体建议，并征求利益攸关方的反馈，以引导学术研究，以解决居住在国家河口和海湾周围的城市和农村社区面临的紧迫问题。河口COPE RCN将汇集海洋学家、工程师、生态学家和社会科学家，讨论沿海复原力跨学科科学中的重大开放问题。RCN将综合河口弹性研究的最新进展，并让研究人员参与几个海湾和河口的工作：切萨皮克湾、哈德逊河和纽约港、马萨诸塞湾和旧金山湾。将对这些系统进行比较研究，包括海平面上升、海岸线后退和生态系统变化的分析和建模、风险分析、动态障碍、工程和基于自然的缓解结构以及沿海社区应对风险的社会科学。计划举办三次面对面讲习班，每次讲习班之后将举行为期一天的利益攸关方会议，调查人员将在会上与利益攸关方社区接触。将安排通过视频会议举行的定期虚拟会议，以进行重点小组讨论。一个由来自多个机构的研究人员组成的指导委员会将指导RCN的活动。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

U.S. coasts feature a number of bays and estuaries within which many metropolitan cities are located: Washington, D.C. near Chesapeake Bay, New York City on the Hudson River, Boston on Massachusetts Bay, and San Francisco on San Francisco Bay, just to name a few. The impacts of storms and sea level rise on estuaries and bays are just beginning to be understood, and many questions remain unanswered. The semi-enclosed nature of bays also brings a unique set of challenges and opportunities for developing engineering or nature-based solutions to protect coastal infrastructure and communities. Natural habitats, such as salt marshes, oyster reefs, and sand dunes, offer coastal protection with ecosystem benefits, but the effectiveness and environmental impacts of these structures are not well understood. A shared network of waterways connects the diverse population of a basin, from urban centers to rural communities, presenting new challenges linking socio-economic disparities and environmental factors. This CoPe RCN will synthesize insights from existing coastal resiliency projects around the country and propose bold new strategies that integrate ecosystem enhancement and recovery to protect coastal communities and infrastructure. It will provide interdisciplinary training to young scientists through workshops and focus-group interactions. The RCN will have strong outreach activities through engagement with stakeholders in federal, state, and local governments; not-for-profit organizations; and coastal communities. The goal is to translate research results into specific recommendations for developing coastal resiliency solutions and seek stakeholders' feedback to orient academic research towards addressing pressing concerns faced by urban and rural communities living around the Nation's estuaries and bays.The Estuarine CoPe RCN will bring together oceanographers, engineers, ecologists, and social scientists to discuss major open questions in the interdisciplinary science of coastal resiliency. The RCN will synthesize recent advances in estuarine resiliency research and involve researchers working on several bays and estuaries: Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River and New York Harbor, Massachusetts Bay and San Francisco Bay. Comparative studies between these systems will be conducted, including analysis and modeling of sea level rise, coastline retreat and ecosystem change, risk analysis, dynamic barriers, engineered and nature-based mitigation structures, and the social science of coastal communities' responses to risks. Three in-person workshops are planned and each workshop will be followed by one-day stakeholder meetings at which investigators will engage with stakeholder communities. Regular virtual meetings through video-conferencing will be scheduled for focus group discussions. A steering committee, consisting of researchers from multiple institutions, will guide the RCN activities.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.