Compound coastal water events (CCWEs) are defined as events that are not themselves extreme but when combined lead to an extreme event or impact in a region. CCWEs are an issue of particular importance in eastern North Carolina and for researchers at East Carolina University.

Over the past few years, Dr. Anuradha Mukherji, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, has led a multidisciplinary team of faculty and students through two grant-funded projects from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that pertain to CCWEs; a Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications (NOAA-COCA) grant from 2019 and a 2022 Regional Integrated Sciences Assessments (RISA) and Adaptation Sciences (AdSci) program grant.

The team includes Dr. Jamie Kruse, Harriot College Distinguished Professor of economics; Dr. Ausmita Ghosh, assistant professor of economics; Dr. Meghan Millea, professor of economics; Dr. Scott Curtis, professor of physics at The Citadel; Dr. Jennifer Helgeson, research economist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and ECU student researchers Nelson Adeniji and Bella Sardina. Mukherji’s research interests, which include disaster planning, climate change adaptation and community resilience, drew her to this work.

Continue reading this article on ECU’s News Service.