Postdoctoral Fellow Wisconsin Sea Grant/Coastal Management Program
As communities throughout the United States work to prepare for and adapt to the environmental challenges of the 21st century—including climate change, extreme weather events, and water supply issues—it is critical to bridge the gap between scientific researchers and the local decision makers and communities who face these threats. Coastal communities along the Great Lakes experience unique challenges related to fluctuating lake levels, coastal processes and hazards (e.g., flooding, erosion), and the region’s reliance on the lakes as a major economic driver and source of drinking water to millions. Since 1978, Wisconsin’s Coastal Management Program (WCMP) has worked with partners at the federal, state, and local level, such as government agencies, tribal governments, and non-profit organizations, to address these challenges and manage the ecological, economic, and aesthetic assets of Great Lakes coastal areas. This talk will highlight the ways in which WCMP and its partners, including Wisconsin Sea Grant, bring scientific research to communities by engaging stakeholders, providing resources, and building shared communities of practice. These efforts include WCMP’s grant program, which supports community-proposed coastal resilience projects along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes coasts, in addition to Wisconsin Sea Grant’s forthcoming Coastal Processes Manual (3rd Edition). These programs seek to provide local decision makers and communities with the agency to protect property and ecological resources, while also sharing the scientific body of knowledge on coastal processes with those on the frontlines to ultimately increase coastal resilience in the Great Lakes region.
