Infrastructure networks in coastal communities must anticipate and respond to the emerging threat of coastal inundation due to sea level rise, tidal forcing, wind events, and precipitation. As inundation events become both more frequent and more severe, human activities and services are disrupted, including transportation, recreation, and economic activities. In many of these communities, decision making about protective infrastructure and transportation planning is highly dispersed and variable, including local property owners; individual communities and counties; and regional, state, and federal agencies. The result is a highly multi-scale governance system in which decision-makers are influenced by local and regional interactions, while managing the multi-scale and interacting infrastructure that defines the shoreline and the transportation networks.

This research project focuses on how the interaction of environmental forcing with the shoreline infrastructure disrupts the transportation network, and how both of these networks influence the governance network that makes planning decisions about the infrastructure. In the context of coastal flooding, this work will provide insights into how governance institutions and networks are prepared, or can be better prepared, to make effective decisions about infrastructure planning and operation.