The Delaware Environmental Institute is a core collaborator on a $7M grant from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE) program. The award will be dispersed over a four-year period, funding an extension of the Institute’s Water in the Changing Coastal Environment of Delaware (WiCCED) project.
WiCCED unites researchers from the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Delaware Technical Community College to assess major threats to Delaware’s water quality and develop technological and policy-based water security solutions. This new extension, WiCCED Salt, will address saltwater intrusion along Delaware’s coasts, identifying the feedbacks of salinization, land-use decisions, policy interventions, and soil chemistry that are shaping how the state’s coastlines evolve. WiCCED Salt research aims to create resilient coastal communities, using data analysis and approaches to engineering and natural & social sciences to inform new resilience and workforce development initiatives. The work aligns with four key priorities outlined in Delaware’s Science, Technology, and Economic Development Plan: (i) Agriculture, (ii) Data Science, Data Analytics, & Big Data, (iii) Environment, and (iv) Talent Retention, Upskilling & Attraction. The project design will equip students and researchers with a professional skillset necessary for addressing pressing issues related to saltwater intrusion.
All components of WiCCED Salt are direct collaborations between Delaware institutions. The project includes multidisciplinary mentorships that broaden student and faculty networks, and increase colleges’ capacities for workforce development, research, and future collaborative grant proposals.
The project has four research objectives:
- Quantifying vulnerabilities in water resources, urban infrastructure, food production, and soil chemistry brought on by saltwater intrusion.
- Analyzing and projecting how water withdrawal and land use decisions are impacted by these vulnerabilities in agricultural and residential landscapes.
- Identifying and evaluating solutions, such as emission reductions and coastal land protections, that mitigate and adapt to the risks of saltwater intrusion.
- Implementing identified solutions and drafting policy suggestions.