ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT FOR SEA LEVEL RISE AT UGA’S SKIDAWAY ISLAND CAMPUS

Coastal campuses like UGA’s Skidaway Island campus, home to the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, are faced with a conundrum: needing to stay in place to continue in-situ research and education while their infrastructure is vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise, from higher tides and storm surges to upland migration of salt marshes. This thesis analyzes functions on the Skidaway campus in light of these issues, discussing the applicability of an adaptive management approach for managing in the face of uncertainty, and suggests management actions to create functional resilience in a three-phased approach. A campus-specific SLAMM model was generated to visualize marsh migration at one-foot sea level rise increments up to six feet if no actions were taken. A second SLAMM model is based off an edited elevation model to show marsh migration if suggested nature-based management actions were implemented.