WPI receives $500K to expand Caribbean coastal community adaptation research

Photo | Grant Welker Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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By Isabel Tehan

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration selected Worcester Polytechnic Institute to receive a $500,000 slice of $3.9 million it is doling out to researchers working on climate adaptation advancements.

The WPI grant is focused on U.S. Caribbean Islands’ vulnerability to heat, hurricanes, and coastal flooding caused by climate change, according to a Thursday press release from WPI. Dean of the institute’s Global School, Mimi Sheller, will lead the WPI project.

The project will foster collaboration between residents in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, nonprofits, and government officials to develop flood resilience plans.

Additionally, the project will improve climate adaptation data visualization and facilitate knowledge sharing, according to the press release. The grant will support a partnership between the Caribbean Climate Adaptation Network, of which WPI is a founding member, and Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, a NOAA division.

“We need everybody working together to understand their risks, their vulnerabilities, their disaster evacuation and emergency plans, and their response to get people back on their feet,” Sheller said in the press release.