ICoM is a multi-institutional effort led by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Our long-term vision is to deliver a robust predictive understanding of coastal evolution that accounts for the complex, multi-scale interactions among physical, environmental, and human systems.
ICoM is taking an integrated approach that brings together multiple modeling tools to represent both extreme events and long-term changes in human and natural systems. We focus on processes that represent significant uncertainties in the evolution of coastal systems and are aligned with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) mission.
Overarching Science Questions
- How do interactions across different coastal systems and processes—including land-river-estuary-ocean fluxes, atmosphere-surface-subsurface interactions, and interplays between human activities and natural Earth system components—influence coastal hazards?
- To what extent could long-term changes in coastal environments—including sea-level rise, human development patterns, geomorphology, vegetative dynamics, biogeochemistry, and deliberate or autonomous adaptations—alter the exposure, vulnerability, or resilience of coastal systems?
- How might tipping points and shocks, such as extreme weather, rapid technological or infrastructural changes, ecological shifts, and compound stressors, lead to significant impacts or major nonlinear changes in the human and natural systems in coastal regions?
