Creation of a digital prototype to redesign the urban coastline |

STONY BROOK, NY, October 8, 2021 – A significant infrastructure need in the United States is the redevelopment and improvement of shoreline protection in urban areas, which are subject to continued damage from storms, rising sea levels and the effects of climate change. Dianna padilla, PhD, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, received a Phase 1 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator totaling nearly $ 750,000, as of of October 1, to design a digital prototype of infrastructure replacement on urban shorelines this would prevent failure and would also be scalable and transportable to true urbanized shores in the United States and elsewhere.

The research is part of the NSF Convergence Accelerator Program, 2021 Track E cohort: The Network Blue Economy, which supports and builds on basic research and discovery that involves multidisciplinary work around the world to accelerate solutions and convergence in the ocean sector; create an integrated, connected and open smart ecosystem for innovation, exploration and sustainable use of the oceans.

Professor Padilla, principal investigator of the project, entitled “Reconfiguration of urban shores for resilience: research of convergence mesh ecology, engineering and architecture”, will work with researchers from several disciplines of several institutions. To create and test the prototype, she will collaborate with scientists from Stony Brook, Rutgers University, Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden, engineers from Arup US, and architects from KolMac Architecture + Design LLC and Philip Parker Architect.

She explains that there is a need to innovate a new generation of replacements for existing hardened shorelines that will protect the urban periphery, while supporting biodiversity and expanding the human experience at the coastal interface.

The research team will work on designs that increase protection of the urban coastline, benefit social communities, and help maximize the development of organic coastal communities and the services they provide, including traditional marine industries such as fishing. , mining and trading, but also emerging industries such as offshore renewable energy.

For more information on the project and details of the NSF grant, see this link.