The Center for Environmental Research’s Archipelagos Hub’s core mission is to design and implement solutions for how we can sustainably live with future climate change in the most vulnerable areas of the planet: archipelagos. The Archipelagos Hub’s focus is on scalable, hybrid, water-based infrastructures. The impacts of climate change to our water systems are two of the four major threads to the human species. These clusters of islands are among the most threatened by the impacts of water, which are forecast to account for the greatest loss of life and climate migration in the near future.
We work on two levels, hyper-local and global: with local governments and communities to ensure the research we do is aligned with the aspirations of those regions and executed strategically to scale rapidly. Through our unique team, we cut across the built and natural environment, across design and engineering, across policy and finance to integrate solutions that are as implementable and comprehensive as they are visionary. We use lessons learned and best practices garnered from prior work completed at scale, apply that knowledge, couple it with emerging design/building technologies and reinforce that work with communication strategies to build public understanding and support. We bring together a range of technologies, from on-site robotic fabrication to marine/ecological engineering for micro-damming to create buildings that are absorbent, strengthen the watershed and advance self-reliance.