Our changing coasts

Developed coastal environments are tightly coupled systems driven by feedbacks between natural and human dynamics that occur across many spatial and temporal scales.

Acute hazards — such as storms — and other natural processes — such as those driven by the chronic effects of sea level rise  — create, maintain, and reshape coastal landforms and ecosystems in ways that impact coastal communities. 

Coastal management practices (beach nourishment, levee construction, armoring of tidal inlets) are both influenced by these acute and chronic hazards and feedback to alter natural processes in ways that enhance or reduce the habitability of the coast. 

At the Coastal HAZards Lab (CHAZ) at North Carolina State University, we combine field data collection and numerical modeling to study both the acute and chronic hazards that influence the habitability of coastlines.