Top climate experts partner to help vulnerable Pacific communities

North Shore O‘ahu home at risk from coastal erosion and high surf. Image courtesy of the Coastal Geology Group/SOEST.

The UH Sea Grant College Program has formed its newest center of excellence to assist coastal communities throughout Hawai‘i and the Pacific islands to prepare for the impacts of both natural and human-induced coastal hazards.

Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s Center for Coastal and Climate Science and Resilience brings together world-renowned university scientists and outreach professionals with government and community partners to focus on critical issues relating to increasing coastal hazards impacts with changing climate and sea-level rise. This is particularly important in the Pacific, since most of the development and infrastructure are concentrated on or near low-lying coasts, making island communities highly susceptible to these threats.

Said Mark Merrifield, director of Sea Grant’s Center for Coastal and Climate Science and Resilience and a professor of Oceanography, “I have been working in Hawai‘i and throughout the Pacific islands for decades, and have seen firsthand how the changing climate is directly impacting the economy, the culture, and the health and well-being of people living in these extremely vulnerable island communities. By bringing together experts in many different fields and, together, identifying potential solutions to some of the most pressing issues the islands face, I am confident the new center will bring about lasting and meaningful change where it is needed the most.”

Read more about it in the UH Manoa News and The Garden Island.