Risks from rising seas, shifting storms, eroding coastlines, changing ecosystems and development patterns, are escalating in heavily populated coastal communities around the world. The decisions that are made today to address these hazards, whether by federal, state or local governments, community-led efforts, or individual households, will shape risks for decades to come.

Beach Replenishment, Monmouth Beach, NJ. John Gattuso

Current frameworks for addressing long-term, multidecadal coastal climate risks are limited in their ability to offer climate adaptation pathways in light of deep uncertainty about climate futures, development patterns, changing coastlines and the priorities of residents, decision-makers and leaders.  The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Coastlines and People Program (CoPE) supports innovative, multi-institution initiatives that broaden participation with communities and decision-makers to build coastal climate adaptation frameworks that transform understanding of interactions among natural, human-built, and social systems in coastal, populated environments.

The CoPe Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH) aims to develop a climate-resilient decision-making framework to equitably support coastal communities. MACH brings together natural scientists, social scientists, civil engineers and humanists with coastal stakeholders and decision-makers to co-produce knowledge that can inform flexible climate adaptation pathways in coastal communities. Grounded in the greater New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey region, MACH is a collaborative effort of 11 academic institutions, led by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  MACH is designed to address fundamental research questions that are critical to produce replicable models for management of coastal climate risk recognizing the deep uncertainties associated with long-term, multi-decadal risk planning.  With a strong commitment to co-production of knowledge and justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, MACH is advised by two bodies: a diverse Collaborative Stakeholder Advisory Panel comprised of community leaders; state, federal and local government agencies, and experts from non-profit organizations; and an Executive Advisory Board comprised of researchers with strong expertise in building multi-institution research endeavors.  Additionally, MACH seeks to broaden participation efforts through engagement of community college students and faculty in the development of research priorities, activities and outcomes.  The Hub seeks to involve students in MACH academic institutions and community colleges to support service learning opportunities.