Committed to Coastal
Resilience
Located steps from the banks of the Mississippi River and mere miles from the largest amount of coastal land loss in the continental U.S., LSU is at the forefront of coastal resilience and other environmental challenges. In addition to the disruption of lives and destruction of homes, LSU economists found in a recent study that land loss poses a direct risk to as much as $3.6 billion in homes, businesses, and other infrastructure in Louisiana that support $7.6 billion in statewide economic activity each year.
The critical work we do begins in our classrooms and laboratories and extends to people living and working in coastal zones worldwide.
Learn With Us
LSU is home to more than 250 faculty members dedicated to coastal research: the largest group of experts focused on coastal resilience and environmental science in Louisiana.
- College of the Coast & Environment works at the intersection of complex coastal and environmental challenges. CC&E conducts world-class research on all continents and educates tomorrow’s coastal and environmental leaders. Our discoveries help to improve the ecosystems that support lives and livelihoods in the Mississippi River Delta and coasts and deltas around the world. Our graduates help to preserve, protect, and sustain the coastal environment for future generations.
- Coastal Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary organization established to foster collaborative coastal science and engineering research in coastal settings, with over 20 leading faculty and more students spanning five departments in five colleges and schools at LSU.
- Center for River Studies conducts research on the world’s major rivers with a specific focus on the Mississippi River. We train the next generation of engineers, geologists, and river experts. It houses one of the world's largest movable bed physical models—the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model.
- Coastal Ecosystem Design Studio is where scientists, engineers, and designers come together to intensively study and respond to issues of settlement, coastal resilience, flood protection, and the economy. The Studio is a laboratory where new strategies that reduce risk to social, economic, and natural resources are developed. The results of this design experimentation provide a sound basis for major policy decisions for adaptation through more sustainable land-use planning, protection, and education. Engineers focused on the advancement and application of computational hydrodynamic and hydrologic models that include overland flow, river discharge, tides, wind-waves, and hurricane storm surge are an integral part of the Studio and develop advanced systems-based models for the assessment of effects of climate change and associated sea level rise, oil transport and fate, and the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
- Louisiana Sea Grant College Program is based at LSU and part of the National Sea Grant Program, a network made up of 34 programs located in each of the coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico. Sea Grant programs work individually and in partnership to address major marine and coastal resilience challenges.
- School of Renewable Natural Resources improves the management of renewable resources, protects biodiversity, and promotes the conservation of wildlife and their environment, directly impacting coastal health and restoration. Our research, teaching, and outreach programs accentuate the Gulf Coast region's unique forest, wetland, wildlife and fisheries resources, including the Coastal Plain and Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley.
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is recognized in the state, nationally and worldwide for excellence in engineering education, fundamental and applied research, and leadership in professional and public service. The department aims to conduct research to improve quality of life with a specific focus on resilient and sustainable natural and built infrastructure and concern for the impact on our natural environmental systems.
The LSU System is training tomorrow's leaders in coastal resilience through a variety of academic programs and courses for undergraduate and graduate students.
Coastal Environmental Science Student Jonathan Russell: My Summer Developing Hurricane Forecast Models
LSU Coastal Environmental Science student, Jonathan Russell explored his interest in meteorology through a summer research internship with LSU and Velocity Risk, a catastrophe risk insurance underwriting company based out of Nashville, TN which seeks to develop innovative, technological solutions towards risk analysis.
His work included helping develop one of the first Gulf of Mexico hurricane forecast models.
LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geography and Anthropology Research Preservation of Native American Sites
Coastal erosion impacts communities along the Gulf of Mexico, like Native Americans, whose archaeological sites are greatly affected by land loss. Wanting to help, faculty from LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering and LSU Geography and Anthropology are working alongside other Louisiana universities to evaluate and determine how these tribes can protect their land.
From preserving ways of life to protecting vulnerable communities and developing new ways to restore and sustain coastal ecosystems, we are committed to the coast and coastal resilience.
More than half the state’s population lives in the coastal zone and is exposed to storms and flooding. The Gulf of Mexico is 10 miles closer to more cities now than it was in 1932, so the work we do here is vital to our future.
As a national Sea Grant university, LSU is home to more than 250 faculty members dedicated to coastal research: the largest group of experts focused on coastal and environmental science in Louisiana.
We are creating solutions to pressing problems experienced by Louisianans today, with a focus on hurricanes, flooding, coastal land loss, ocean health, fisheries, coastal restoration, and sea-level rise. Our renowned expertise is used to create roadmaps for the successful navigation of these challenges.
Coastal Research in Action
LSU and Tulane are leading the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative to chart a new course for the future of the region where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico, an area both crucial to commerce and among the most vulnerable in the world.
Archaeologists from LSU and the University of Texas at Tyler, led by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, have excavated the earliest known ancient Maya salt works in southern Belize, uncovering an extensive pattern of sites that include “salt kitchens.”
#1
LSU is the #1 in the nation in published, peer-reviewed research papers on wetlands and marshes.
Six
Six faculty members in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment have earned the National Wetlands Award. No other university has received more than one such award.
70 years
LSU pioneered the first comprehensive study of Louisiana's coast 70 years ago.
Coastal Academic Programs
LSU has a variety of academic programs and courses for undergraduate and graduate students interested in coastal resilience and coastal research-related fields.