FR ALIN E XPLORER SUMMER 2019
Researchers and stakeholders were able to come together and assess the expertise and resources that Virginiaâ€™s universities currently have and will need in the future to answer pressing research questions and produce policy-relevant science related to the commonwealthâ€™s resilience to coastal flooding.
Photo courtesy of Anamaria Bukvic.
13 Coastal@VT faculty are applying innovative and holistic approaches and utilizing cuttingedge skills and technology to interpret data and solve problems. They engage in a broad range of research topics such as: Tsunami sedimentation and erosion Tropical cyclone dynamics and structure Storm surge dynamics and hazard assessment Disaster preparedness and hazard mitigation Climate change adaptation, resilience, and vulnerability Population displacement and relocation Wildlife conservation management Environmental resource economics Endangered species and shorebird ecology Public health and safety post marine oil spills Collaborative governance and scenario planning To support its faculty and ensure that their research is aligned with the Coastal@ VT mission, the initiative offers seed grants to fund interdisciplinary research
and organizes various events to facilitate knowledge exchange, new partnerships, and collaboration between researchers and the public and private sector. Coastal@VT places a great emphasis on generating impactful data and policy-relevant research. Coastal disasters affect people from all walks of life. Improving the resilience of the communities in which these people live requires collaboration among experts and stakeholders from a wide range of different disciplines. To promote resiliency, Coastal@ VT engages in educating future leaders, practitioners, and researchers in disaster resilience and risk management with support from a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant (NRT). This inclusive program, also referred to as DRRMVT (Disaster Resilience and Risk Management at Virginia Tech), invites graduate students from all colleges and departments of Virginia Tech to learn important interdisciplinary skills while
strengthening their knowledge of disaster resilience and risk management. You can read more about the DRRMVT program on page 16. In 2017, graduate students from the Climate Change and Societal Impacts course, taught by Bukvic, had an opportunity to participate in the Resilience Research and Design Tidewater Collaborative Laboratory, better known as the Tidewater Collaboratory. This hands-on learning experience was supported by Wetlands Watch, Virginia Sea Grant, and the Hampton Roads chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. It enabled students to partner with officials from the City of Hampton and study topics ranging from social vulnerability to flooding and community resilience in different city neighborhoods. In October of 2018, the Coastal@VT group hosted the first 2018 Rotating Resilience Roundtable, a two-day event on the Blacksburg campus, which offered faculty the opportunity to interact with coastal scientists