The Water Initiative

Coastal Coupling Community of Practice in Focus:

Scientists and modelers from federal agencies and academia have formed the Coastal Coupling Community of Practice (CC CoP) to address the challenge of integrating riverine and coastal waters in support of improved water forecasting through the Water Initiative. The near-term goal of the CC CoP is to establish a sustainable framework for collaboration and foster an environment for tacit knowledge exchange among scientists, enabling the development of coordinated solutions for continental-scale, integrated water prediction.

Currently, integrated models do not adequately represent the complex hydraulic processes occurring in riverine, estuarine, and coastal systems. The long-term goal is to develop products and services that meet the needs of water resource managers, water suppliers, planners, and decision-makers, helping to protect the lives and property of more than 100 million people living in coastal zones who currently lack access to this level of predictive information.

Community of Practice Areas of Focus:

Challenge:

Advance science around coupling models through collaborative community engagement for integrated coastal solutions employing research, model development and application, data provision, observations, analysis, and service delivery.

Goals:

• Enable the coupling of models across the coastal zone—beginning with hydrologic and hydrodynamic systems—to improve the simulation and analysis of Earth system processes. This includes generating key physical parameters such as water levels, flows, water quality, sediment transport, and geomorphic change.

• Translate these parameters into actionable information delivered to stakeholders in accessible, user-friendly formats that support decision-making.

• Accelerate the development of nationwide integrated water prediction capabilities by adopting community-driven research and modeling approaches that reflect stakeholder needs and requirements.