Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER) Association

Britt Raubenheimer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Nina Stark, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, United States, Jim Chen, Northeastern University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Boston, MA, United States, Steve Elgar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering, Woods Hole, United States, Holly A Michael, University of Delaware, Earth Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Newark, United States, Laura J. Moore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Chapel Hill, NC, United States and Lori Peek, University of Colorado Boulder, Sociology and Natural Hazards Center, Boulder, United States
Abstract:
In September 2019, the NSF Coastlines and People program funded a two-year pilot Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER) Association. NEER’s vision is to improve resilience of the “nearshore system” (the region where oceans and estuaries interact with land) by obtaining perishable observations during extreme events. These observations are critical to understanding and modeling interactions among natural-system processes, the built environment, and societal responses and actions. The primary focus of NEER is on major storms, but extreme events are defined broadly to encompass events that require rapid, pre-event deployments to observe the evolving interactions during “shocks” to the nearshore system. For example, although it was too early in NEER’s formation to deploy for Hurricane Dorian, the Association conducted a “dry run” with group discussions of the interdisciplinary measurements needed to improve understanding of overwash processes (an identified science goal), selection of a deployment site, and logistical issues including obtaining permits. Eleven NEER members were available to collect perishable observations prior to, during, and after Dorian had the Association mobilized. This poster will describe the framework for the NEER Association, which was developed by an interdisciplinary group of academics and agency personnel during a two-day NSF-supported workshop in August 2019, and ongoing collaboration with other NSF-funded extreme events research and reconnaissance networks (EERs). The poster also will describe the group’s vision, deployment criteria, site selection process, and field and home team organization. Additional information about NEER and other NSF-supported EERs, and instructions for joining the Association are available at neerassociation.org and converge.colorado.edu/.
Back to: Coastal Research Related to Hurricane Dorian and the 2019 Hurricane Season I Posters