COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Built Environment
Hydrological Connectivity: Improving Coastal Literacy and Resilience in Classrooms and Communities in the City of Wilmington
Provisionally accepted
Philip Joseph Bresnahan1,2*
Meredith Hovis2,3B. Troy Frensley2,3
Mariko Polk4Erin Moran5Craig Harris6Kimberly Lebby7Bentley Settin1,2Jordan Davidson3Chelsea Kasney3Steven Anderson1Chris O'Connor5
Joanne Nancie Halls1,2
Lynn Leonard1,2
Jennifer Dorton8Cotie Alsbrooks8Dave Wells2- 1University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Wilmington, United States
- 2University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science, Wilmington, United States
- 3University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of Environmental Science, Wilmington, United States
- 4North Carolina Sea Grant, Raleigh, United States
- 5University of North Carolina Wilmington MarineQuest, Wilmington, United States
- 6City of Wilmington, Wilmington, United States
- 7DREAMS Center for Arts Education, Wilmington, United States
- 8Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, Charleston, United States
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Coastal flooding creates regular and episodic hazards—both of which are worsening due to sea-level rise, changing precipitation patterns, land-use changes, subsidence, and more—with varying degrees of predictability. The heterogeneity of flooding over space and time creates challenges in monitoring, modeling, communication of, and preparation for risks. Improving coastal community preparedness and resiliency requires a multi-pronged approach, including, for example, better monitoring and alerting paired with location-specific awareness of flood risk and safety measures. In this Hydrological Connectivity project, an academic-government-nonprofit-community collaborative team worked together to (1) find and fill gaps in real-time flood monitoring and alerting, (2) listen to community concerns and needs and provide flood safety strategies, and (3) foster intergenerational learning by teaching 4th grade students in the community about coastal hydrology and flood monitoring techniques through place-and project-based learning. This manuscript describes the need for and deployment of this multi-partner and multidisciplinary approach to improving coastal literacy and resilience in a frontline community in Wilmington, NC, USA, and our lessons learned.
Keywords: Coastal resilience, Coastal literacy, flooding, Community Engagement, sensor network
Received: 07 Oct 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bresnahan, Hovis, Frensley, Polk, Moran, Harris, Lebby, Settin, Davidson, Kasney, Anderson, O'Connor, Halls, Leonard, Dorton, Alsbrooks and Wells. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Philip Joseph Bresnahan
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