SWISLR all-hands event and SALT conference summary!

Over the summer many SWISLR RCN participants attended the SALT (Salinity-Affected Lands in Transition) Conference in Cambridge, Maryland, in June 2024. With approximately 200 attendees, this conference was a great opportunity to bring folks together around important issues related to working lands affected by saltwater intrusion. We learned about the current research through 8 curated sessions, a poster session, and two keynote talks. In the first Keynote, Dr. Emily Bernhardt discussed the possible futures that could take place if we can work together to untangle the complexities surrounding SWISLR. She stepped through what we know about SWISLR, what is currently happening to study SWISLR, and the new technology being used to combat SWISLR issues. In the second Keynote, Dr. Diana Seecharran provided a global perspective and discussed how the rice-based farmers in Guyana are reacting and adapting to the SWISLR problem. The other sessions covered topics on the environmental, social, and economic issues SWISLR is causing throughout the coastal plain. 

Throughout the SALT conference, the Saltwater Intrusion and Sea Level Rise (SWISLR) Research Coordination Network (funded by the National Science Foundation) invited the attendees to imagine the potential futures of our coastal plain and identify what stands in the way of accomplishing these futures. We invited SALT attendees to fill out our interactive “How do we face SWISLR?” board. Here they could identify the problems they face with SWISLR, what an ideal coastal future looks like, and the potential opportunities. People shared their thoughts on what should be done, what can be done, and what can’t be done in the face of the SWISLR problem.

Following SALT, the all-hands SWISLR meeting followed up on these questions and more specifically asked people to envision their ideal coastal future. We started our SWISLR all-hands meeting by summarizing all the SWISLR issues we know about and have heard about during the SALT conference. When experts were asked to identify the SWISLR problem, many differing issues were raised, ranging from ecological and social vulnerabilities threatened by SWISLR hazards to the uncertainty of the future and what response is even possible. Some keywords continuously mentioned while envisioning coastal futures were access, collaboration, and adaptive. These keywords were used when describing new technology, discussing possible economic/policy structures, and creating spaces to live with nature/water instead of against it. The all-hands participants were then challenged to think of ways to work toward these futures. Overall, collaboration is needed to coordinate experiments, connect people with solutions, hold each other accountable, share ideas, and become more efficient with the time and funding currently available. More research and better data are also needed to make these envisioned futures a reality. The research and data needs mentioned were across various disciplines, like groundwater response, soil water salinity, spatial data, and policy reviews. Better data and more collaborated research can lead to better policy being implemented, restructuring the current funding systems, restructuring the power dynamics currently in place, and help people living with SWISLR accept that change is the way of life. ​

After these discussions, the 7 SWISLR projects in attendance got together to work. Participants followed up on the project pitches from last year's all-hands meeting; discussing the feasibility of the proposed work, updating new members on what has or has not been completed, and discussing what still needs to be done for the project to succeed. During the working time, one project worked on data analysis, another began writing a grant for funding the proposed work, and another finished writing a paper. You can see all the amazing project updates here: SWISLR All Hands 2 Project Updates!

Next year will be the final all-hands meeting, where we aim to summarize what we have learned, what remains unclear, and what to do next. As we move forward, we encourage everyone to leverage the connections and relationships built during the conference. These networks can be valuable in collaborating on writing proposals and forming teams that bring together diverse expertise and perspectives. By continuing to work together, we can drive progress and develop effective strategies to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise and saltwater intrusion.