Using Undergraduate Engineers and Community Engagement to Build Resilient Coastal Communities Grant uri icon

abstract

  • In contrast to large metropolitan areas that have many resources to prepare for sea level rise, there are many small underserved communities along the coast that do not have the resources to design and implement engineering solutions to address sea level rise. The transformative potential of this project stems from its primary goal: to link the local knowledge embedded in rural coastal communities with the engineering expertise of undergraduate students to design solutions that build resiliency and bolster the participation of marginalized communities in adaptation planning. Through the interdisciplinary efforts of engineers and social scientists, the objectives of this work are: (1) develop a framework where the research team engages community members and undergraduate engineering students to advance a community-based engineering design process focused on generating solutions to issues caused by changing climate patterns and sea level rise; (2) document local community members? perceptions of the contributions of the framework to resiliency; and (3) assess how community interaction affects engineering student outcomes. In the future, implementing this framework at universities across the nation could lead to the development of a hub in which student and faculty experts and underserved communities co-produce locally contextualized solutions to the effects of global change. East Carolina University (ECU) is a primarily undergraduate institution located in the coastal plain of North Carolina and the only university in the region with an engineering program. ECU?s location near rural coastal communities combined with the engineering expertise of the students and faculty makes it an ideal location to demonstrate this framework and develop it into a sustainable program able to be scaled and implemented in other regions. Key to this framework?s utility for building resilient communities from underserved communities is effectively engaging residents in a process that promotes community-driven solutions. This means involving citizens from the beginning to identify the critical problems, determine how to best address community needs, and build support for the project. Under the guidance of the research team, design teams, made up of senior engineering students completing their year-long capstone projects, will follow the engineering design process to develop a solution to a community-identified problem. The community will be involved from the beginning of the process through a variety of engagement techniques. We will hold small focus groups to foster detailed discussions with key knowledgeable stakeholders, conduct frequent meetings with a core stakeholder group that represents the many interests within the community, and host quarterly public meetings to keep the broader community informed and gather additional feedback. Across these settings, the engineering students will present their design ideas, gather input based on local knowledge, and receive feedback on their proposed design. To do this, the research team will work closely with the non-profit organization North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF). NCCF has developed multiple watershed restoration plans with coastal communities lacking resources for engineering services in order to make the communities eligible for federal grant funds to implement solutions. Members of the research team were involved in NCCF?s community-driven process to develop a plan to begin addressing the challenges related to sea level rise in the Lake Mattamuskeet community in Hyde County, North Carolina. Completed in 2018, the plan identifies multiple alternative solutions. In this proposed work, we will implement our proposed framework to build on this planning effort by conducting a more thorough feasibility analysis of the proposed solutions and developing a detailed design of the recommended

date/time interval

  • January 2020 - December 2022