The Coastal Coupling Community of Practice (CC CoP) was founded in 2019 to advance predictive capabilities in the coastal zone. Since its inception, the CC CoP has served as an effective mechanism for coordination and information sharing across the community. At the 2023 Annual Meeting, members requested the development of a CC CoP Roadmap to guide future efforts.
In response, the CC CoP Executive Committee convened a two-day retreat in summer 2024 to draft the Roadmap. During this process, the Committee identified four initiatives designed to address community needs related to model information, shared working environments, and workforce development, while also advancing the CC CoP’s core mission to couple models, provide actionable information, and accelerate national-scale coverage of integrated water prediction capabilities. The four initiatives are:
Initiative 1: Total Water Level - In which the CCCoP is contributing to ongoing total water level improvements based on: improved physics; the addition of hyper-resolution (e.g., already planned for the National Water Model); improved understanding of geomorphic changes; other improvements proposed by the CC CoP membership. The accountable working group is called the Total Water Level Working Group.
Initiative #2: Ecosystems and Water Quality - In which the CC CoP is contributing to ongoing ecosystem modeling (e.g., improved understanding of marsh migration and water quality issues) by contributing to reliable, physically based temperature and salinity models for inland and nearshore. The accountable working group is called the Ecosystems and Water Quality Working Group.
Initiative #3: Bathymetric Data - In which the CC CoP is contributing to, and advocating for, a complete national set of bathymetric data, including definitions, metadata, and data access (see also the CC CoP Annual Meeting Report 2023). Hydro flattened data, wherein water surfaces appear to represent traditional digital elevation models even though there is no underlying bathymetric data, will be replaced with complete data sets and cadenced updates. The accountable working group is called the Bathymetric Data Working Group.
Initiative #4: Communications, Education, and Training - In which the CC CoP is contributing to continuous communications, education, and training initiatives by sponsoring hack-a-thons, building modeling training kits into college curricula, and sharing content and inspiration with each other. The accountable working group is called the Communications, Education, and Training Working Group.
The CC CoP Roadmap initiatives and milestones.
Design source: Modified from Dark Green Modular Business Roadmap Brainstorm by Kazakov Vladimir on Canva.
