Excellence in Research: Identification of absolute sea level rise and land subsidence from long-term tide gauge records along coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay

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Global warming causes worldwide sea level rising due to a combination of meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets and expansion of ocean water. As a result, flood risk and ecosystem change are elevated in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, two of the globe’s hot spots, where the sea level rise is about two to four times greater than global mean sea level rise. The sustainability and resiliency of the nation’s coastal communities to evolving needs of the environments in response to past and future sea level rise necessitates identification of it from long-term tide gauge records along the nation’s coasts. This research will develop an innovative methodology to accurately identify and predict sea level rise along any coasts. The proposed research activities will impart an improved understanding of sea level rise and its adverse impacts on coastal communities, which thereby inspires scientists and engineers to face various environmental challenges caused by sea level rise. In order to disseminate new knowledge and research findings, the program plans to deliver lectures or talks with research results to K-12 students, college students in three undergraduate courses, and graduate students in four graduate courses in Civil Engineering at Morgan State University. One postdoctoral researcher and one graduate student will be hired each year to participate in the proposed research activities.Gauged sea level rise comprises of absolute sea level rise, in light of the Earth’s climate system change, and land subsidence, due to the Earth’s geological system change. The latter change includes four sub-components: tectonic subsidence from basement rocks, basement rock creep, primary consolidation subsidence due to subsurface fluid withdrawal from compressible coastal aquifer systems and creep subsidence due to geohistorical overburden pressure of the same aquifer system. A novel piecewise equation of relative sea level rise comprising of absolute sea level rise and four sub-components of land subsidence can help scientists and engineers identify and project relative sea level rise value for adaptive engineering design and construction necessary with a view to increase the resilience of coastal communities against sea level rise as well as other natural hazards. To these ends, this project aims to raise public awareness of the importance of sea level rise in environmental sustainability and coastal community resilience in the coastal areas of the Mexico Gulf and the Chesapeake Bay and promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for underrepresented minorities. This project is co-funded by the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics (GLD) Program and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Excellence in Research (HBCU-EiR) Program, along with support from Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) funds of the NSF Geosciences Directorate.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.