Progress on ESMD Tasks for Phase 2 of ICoM
Coastal regions across the country and around the world are exposed to a wide range of natural hazards as well as stresses associated with expanding human development. Understanding and projecting future changes and risks in coastal systems is generally difficult due to the presence of sharp horizontal gradients and complex coupled interactions among different human and natural systems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This project, Integrated Coastal Modeling (ICoM), will fill these gaps by developing, evaluating, and applying a range of modeling tools to systematically analyze coastal processes, hazards, and responses. For Phase Two of the ICoM project, we have identified three topical ESMD focus areas for E3SM development that build off ESMD work done in Phase 1 of ICoM: biogeochemistry, continental shelf processes, and coastal inundation. These focus areas are chosen to address key scientific questions in the Mid-Atlantic region, the broader US East Coast, and other coastal regions; and represent the most pressing areas for ensuring the E3SM project has the understanding and infrastructure needed to provide application appropriate detail in simulations of targeted coastal regions.