Research

Interdisciplinary research that leads to real change

Numerous problems confront populous coastal communities, from rising sea levels, to collapsing fisheries, to degraded coastal habitats. CSI faculty study human-environment interactions across the land-sea interface, then use data and insights to spur meaningful change—developing actionable solutions to coastal threats.

CSI researchers look at more than the science of shoreline ecosystems. They consider a full spectrum of factors affecting coastlines: societal, political, and economic. This interdisciplinary approach leads to solutions that improve the health of coastal regions and policies that sustain them. Among other innovations, our faculty has developed better ways to understand the effects of coastal pollution, built underwater robots to reach remote marine habitats, and divided methods to bolster at-risk fish populations.