© 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Eos, Vol. 95, No. 33, 19 August 2014

MEETING

Reconceptualizing the Role of Infrastructurein Resilience

Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the Coastal Environment (SAGE)Research Collaborative Network Workshop;Brooklyn, New York, 21–23 May 2014

PAGE 298

The Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the

Coastal Environment (SAGE) research collab-

oration network is composed of U.S., Carib-

bean, and European engineers, geoscientists,

ecologists, social scientists, planners, and pol-

icy makers. The goal of SAGE is to establish

international, cross- disciplinary networks of

researchers working on resilient coastal infra-

structure (gray, green, and cultural), with a

focus on understanding how varying coastal

characteristics contribute toward resilient

adaptation strategies (funded under National

Science Foundation grant ICER-1338767).

Thirty-two people attended the first work-

shop in Brooklyn, which included presenta-

tions, topic and research gap discussions, and

meetings with various stakeholders in the

region’s coastal adaptation planning. Partici-

pants also took a daylong field trip to observe

Hurricane Sandy recovery and adaptation

sites in Rockaway Beach, N.Y.

To begin collaborations and generate ideas

about resilient infrastructure, three working

groups—physical and natural infrastructure,

policy and governance, and local and spatial

considerations—were formed to identify a set

of action items for SAGE. The central topics

and conclusions of the workshop focused on

types of adaptation infrastructure for coastal

areas, short-term policy- relevant research

needs, and formulating a gradient system that

is intended to serve as the overarching basis for

a new analytic modeling approach to coastal

adaptation planning and implementation.

Though different disciplines used different

terms, there was broad agreement that a par-

ticular locale’s adaptation strategy, if it is to

be effective, must consider built and natural

infrastructure, as well as community prepared-

ness and cultural infrastructure. There was

strong consensus that research is needed to

identify the appropriate trade-offs among the

three categories and that more information is

needed on the effectiveness of nonstructural

interventions so that such approaches can be

thoughtfully and quantitatively considered as

part of planning processes.

To move forward in the short term, the

groups proposed to develop an assessment of

resilient infrastructure to allow for a portfolio

of adaptation strategies, rather than isolated

intervention measures. This portfolio might

describe interventions in terms of risk, effec-

tiveness (both short and long term), robust-

ness (for extreme events and longer- term

phenomena), cost, experience with perfor-

mance of the method, how interventions may

affect one another, and other spillover effects.

SAGE will host a library of case studies on

the website and is planning to work with com-

munities and federal managers to support

their science policy research needs.

A longer- term goal of the effort is to develop

a generalizable, multidisciplinary analytic

framework for considering coastal adaptation

options across a range, or gradient, of spatial,

temporal, technical, political, cultural, and

decision contexts. The case studies in the

northeast United States and the Caribbean

will be used to develop the gradient system

and test the generalizability and utility of the

approach.

The next three workshops will be hosted

in the Caribbean, and the final workshop

will take place in Boston in 2018. SAGE will

be soliciting applications to be part of future

workshops. Case studies and literature can be

sent to resilient . infrastructure@ gmail .com.

For more information about SAGE, visit http://

www . resilient - infrastructure .org/.

—MELISSA A. KENNEY, Earth System Science

Interdisciplinary Center/ Cooperative Institute for

Climate and Satellites- Maryland, University of

Maryland, College Park; email: kenney@ umd .edu;

ELISABETH M. HAMIN, Department of Landscape

Architecture and Regional Planning, University of

Massachusetts, Amherst; and THOMAS C. SHEAHAN,

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.