ATHENS, GA – Through the first ever Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) between an academic institution and Navy Region Southeast, the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) will work to help the United States Navy ensure the security of our national assets, infrastructure, and missions.
With increasing threats due to climate change, defense programs throughout the United States are investing in collaborations that will allow them to better understand and address the ways that extreme weather, climate change, and other hazards could impact missions. Navy Region Southeast recently signed the IGSA, which will provide UGA with an estimated $20 million over ten years, to enhance the Navy’s resilience against environmental hazards on installations across the southeast.
“We work better when we work together. We are proud to partner with UGA to address installation resilience,” said Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment (ASN EI&E) and the Department’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Meredith Berger. “We’re working to build a climate-ready force, and that includes developing resilient infrastructure that gives our people, systems, and facilities every advantage as they complete the mission of protecting the nation.”
“Our partnership with the University of Georgia’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems is a pivotal step toward a more climate-resilient Naval force and it aligns with Navy Climate Action 2030 goals,” said Rear Admiral John Hewitt, Commander, Navy Region Southeast. “This collaboration strengthens community ties and is crucial for advancing Navy’s climate action objectives, including climate-informed decision-making for existing and future infrastructure. By focusing on resilient and sustainable infrastructure-related solutions, this partnership will support Navy installations across the Southeast, thus enhancing our mission accomplishment and fortifying our infrastructure to meet future challenges.”
IRIS, which was founded in 2016, is an interdisciplinary team that includes affiliates from over a dozen disciplines across UGA, including engineers, ecologists, economists, meteorologists, and climate scientists. IRIS partners with a diverse array of public and private-sector organizations around the country to provide expertise in resilience ranging from multi-hazard risk assessment to nature-based solutions that protect communities, livelihoods, and national security.
Deborah Loomis, Climate Change Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, also spoke to how the agreement will build resilience. “This agreement with the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems represents another step forward in the Department of the Navy’s efforts to build resilience for our bases, and our neighboring defense communities, at a meaningful scale, and informed by the best data and science available.”
Climate change can impact Navy installations and missions in a number of ways, including through sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, coastal storms, extreme precipitation events, flooding, drought, extreme heat, and wildfire. In addition to these hazards posing dangers to people and infrastructure, they pose a serious threat to national security and military missions.
Robin O’Connell, Director of the Climate Change Office in the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Headquarters, also recognized how these impacts can hinder functionality for defense installations.
“Navy Installations and infrastructure are critical components of operational readiness,” said O’Connell. “They must be able to maintain peak functionality to support mission success, now and into the future, even as climate changes and environmental conditions place greater stress on our systems.”
The Department of Defense faces a number of decisions about how best to manage the challenges that climate change poses. With its basis in engineering and the sciences, IRIS has the capacity to deliver technically rigorous solutions to those challenges.
“The IRIS team is honored to support the Navy’s critical efforts to develop scientifically credible, authoritative, and actionable resilience strategies and to build a climate-ready force,” IRIS Director Brian Bledsoe said of the agreement.
Marshall Shepherd, IRIS Associate Director of Climate Science and Outreach, emphasized the importance of drawing from different perspectives in building resilience. “Naval installations and operations are particularly sensitive to emerging geohazards. This new partnership activates the multidisciplinary power of an impressive collective of weather, climate, engineering and geospatial expertise to support our national security enterprise.”
IRIS will be supported in their planning and execution of Navy IGSA Tasks by the UGA Research Institute (UGARI). UGARI was founded in 2022 to help facilitate and grow relationships and subsequent sponsored projects with federal mission agencies such as the Department of Defense. With its founding steering committee membership of the Provost, Vice President for Research and deans of the College of Engineering, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Public and International Affairs, UGARI will work with IRIS to ensure the breadth and depth of UGA’s land grant capabilities are tapped to meet Navy needs.
Arne Olsen, the Environmental Resiliency Program Manager for Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southeast, spoke to how the IGSA represents a national need for collaboration on resilience in the face of climate change, particularly when it comes to national security.
“I look forward to my continued work with the University of Georgia in support of making the installations in Navy Region Southeast more resilient to environmental hazards,” said Olsen. “Together we can leverage our combined expertise to ensure that the shore infrastructure can withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions caused by environmental hazards, and improve current and future fleet readiness and mission execution.”
To follow this project as it develops, learn more about how IRIS strengthens national resilience, or explore other resilient infrastructure projects, visit the UGA IRIS project page.
By Sarah Buckleitner
