CoPe: RCN: A Coastal Alliance Network for Visualization, Assessment, Science, and Stakeholders (CANVASS) for Convergent Environmental Problem Solving

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Climate change requires that humans adapt to new and unprecedented weather extremes and build resilience in natural and human-made ecosystems, especially in and near coastal areas. CANVASS (Coastal Alliance Network for Visualization, Assessment, Science, and Stakeholders) is a network led by Stony Brook University's (SBU’s) School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in collaboration with Co-PIs at Howard University, Northeastern University, SBU’s Department of Computer Science and Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and interdisciplinary partners from across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastal United States. The goals of CANVASS are twofold: (1) to spread innovative approaches from these fields within an integrated network of scientists, policy-makers, educators, and stakeholders; and (2) to grow the network into a hub that connects high-impact research, community participation, and educational approaches. This approach integrates state-of-the-art visualization and interactive techniques to support the understanding of data and risk, along with the use of an "ethical matrix" for stakeholders to systematically represent, discuss, understand, and weigh tradeoffs and perspectives. SBU’s data visualization center, the Reality Deck, the world’s largest immersive display, will be used along with other visualization approaches to connect partners and stakeholders to large, multidimensional datasets and models that will help them view, manipulate, analyze, understand, and communicate about data. The project will focus initially on coastal-urban flood risk from sea level rise, storm surge, and heavy rainfall. Workshops will explore how visualizations can scaffold both scientific advances and effective stakeholder interactions. Approaches and methods that are developed through this work will be exportable to other coastal urban areas, and can thus be used to mitigate other sorts of climate risk beyond flooding, as well as human-environmental problems more broadly. CANVASS will recruit students, including those underrepresented in the climate sciences, to learn first-hand how predictive science can translate into actionable decision-making.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.