Meeting Documents

Decadal Strategy for Coastal Observation and Management

Abstract

Coasts are crucial for human livelihood, occupying a small fraction of the Earth's land surface yet supporting a significant majority of the global population within a short distance and generating a substantial portion of the world's GDP through ecosystem goods and services like agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, tourism, transportation, and energy industries. However, coasts are facing significant changes due to the ever-increasing human population and climate change, with sea level rise, extreme weather events, warming ocean, and land cover land use changes as the primary drivers. These changes threaten coastal community infrastructure, their access to clean water and sanitation, and the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems to sustain life and regulate carbon within the Earth system. Addressing these challenges requires a holistic, integrated systems approach to bridge the gap between observations, models, and scientific disciplines. This talk will present critical science and application needs at the coast, as well as an observing architecture system that could fulfill these needs within the next decade for informed management and policy evaluation.