ICAR in the news

A decade after laying the groundwork for a $120 million grant won by Virginia in a national competition, students from Old Dominion and Hampton Universities will engineer flood solutions in five different Norfolk neighborhoods.

The National Capital region faces long-term threats from more violent storms and sea level rise, and the solutions are time-consuming, expensive, and require extensive collaboration. “Adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an ultramarathon, it’s not a sprint,” says Jessica Whitehead of ODU’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, lead author of the Fifth National Climate Assessment chapter on the Northeast region. “We all just got out of the gate.”

Sea level rise is a nuisance for coastal communities like Hampton Roads. It will soon be much more of a threat. Jessica Whitehead, Executive Director of the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, said it’s challenging to think systematically about what sea-level rise will do to the economy, social systems and community. “Serious conversations must be had – not just in Hampton Roads but nationally.”

A partnership between Old Dominion University and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has resulted in $1.5 million of state funding to help coastal communities find solutions to recurrent flooding.

ICAR research focuses on the multi-pronged effects of sea level rise – including to structures coastal communities take for granted, like fishing piers. “Not everybody has a boat to fish from, so what happens when you have damage to docks, erosion, water quality issues, sea-level rise or habitat loss?” asks Jessica Whitehead, executive director of the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience. “Will there still be places you can fish?”