Towards Convergent Research Outcomes at the Coastal Land Margin

Transdisciplinary research can be thought of as a means of growing convergence research if (according to https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/convergence/index.jsp) it is research that is driven by a specific and compelling problem, and there exists deep integration across disciplines. The achievement of convergence entails integrating knowledge, methods, and expertise to form novel frameworks to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation. Sea level rise impacts coupled with population growth prompt humans to modify the coastal land-margin into unprecedented, large-scale engineered systems, which has consequences across multiple scales for ecological systems, socioeconomic development, policy, and natural resource management. A major goal of institutions around the globe is to produce research outcomes that will inform society about resilient practices and influence governance and decision making. This presentation will use examples of the numerical modeling of wicked problems at the coastal land margin in the northern Gulf of Mexico as a means to demonstrate the utility of first, transdisciplinary and, second, convergence research to enable coastal resilience in the face of climate change.