{"id":215850,"date":"2024-07-23T07:15:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=215850"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:30:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:30:32","slug":"circa-serving-connecticuts-coastal-communities-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/07\/circa-serving-connecticuts-coastal-communities-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"CIRCA: Serving Connecticut\u2019s Coastal Communities and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between scorching summers and unprecedented storms, the consequences of climate change have crashed down on Connecticut in recent years. Policymakers, urban planners, and resource managers are needing to make decisions with new threats in mind: more extreme weather events, heat, and sea level rise.<\/p>\n

This last threat is something James O\u2019Donnell, professor of marine sciences and director of the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation (CIRCA)<\/a> at UConn Avery Point, knows a lot about. A physical oceanographer, his research focuses on circulation and mixing in the ocean. These factors influence how sea levels will respond to climate change.<\/p>\n

Forecasting Flood Risks After Hurricane Sandy<\/h3>\n

In 2018, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill<\/a> urging UConn and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to develop guidelines advising state leaders on how to plan for sea level rise. O\u2019Donnell was already in position on the UConn faculty and was ready to spearhead the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuperstorm Sandy kind of focused people\u2019s attention on the impacts of flooding, and the expectation that it may increase,\u201d O\u2019Donnell says.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell led the initiative to predict Connecticut\u2019s future sea level rise and translate the data into models for community planning \u2013 no simple task, since sea level rise is impossible to predict with 100% certainty.<\/p>\n