EVENTS
Offshore Situation Room
Recognizing that oil spill recovery and response has only grown more complex since the Deepwater Horizon disaster given the challenges posed by aging infrastructure and the increased frequency of extreme weather events, the GRP hosted the Offshore Situation Room (OSR) in June. This event invited national and regional experts from government, industry, and academia to explore actions needed to prevent future offshore oil spills—and to be better prepared when they occur. The “serious game” stressed the need to adapt, adjust thinking, and challenge presumptions about how events unfold in the face of disasters.
New Consensus Study Series to Monitor Progress and Change in the Gulf
In November, the GRP hosted a diverse group of people to discuss the various elements that affect infrastructure resiliency by posing various scenarios to determine what priorities would emerge. Day one of the workshop was framed around a hurricane scenario while day two posed a protracted oil spill, emphasizing the various environmental and human health effects that had to be considered, as well as the economic impacts to local industries.
Climate and Environmental Justice on the U.S. Gulf Coast
In June, the GRP convened a panel of three members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to discuss steps that are being taken or that need to occur to advance climate and environmental justice for those who call the Gulf of Mexico region home. The panelists—Dr. Robert Bullard, Dr. Beverly Wright, and Catherine Coleman Flowers—discussed opportunities to equitably improve conditions in the Gulf of Mexico region, particularly within Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
Offshore Energy Colloquia Series with the National Academy of Engineering
In 2021, the GRP partnered with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on a series of colloquia on offshore energy. In the inaugural colloquium, Lessons (Sometimes) Learned and Often Forgotten, the Honorable Donald Winter examined several case studies to illustrate the challenges of establishing and maintaining appropriate corrective actions after a mass casualty accident. The second colloquium, Opportunities and Challenges in Offshore Wind, focused on the integration of offshore wind into the U.S. energy landscape.
Understanding the Future of the Mississippi Delta Webinars
A pair of webinars in September looked at management options for shaping the future of the Mississippi River. The first webinar covered modeling efforts by the Lowermost Mississippi River Management Program conducted by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The second reviewed the 2014–2015 Changing Course: Navigating the Mississippi Delta’s Future competition to plan self-sustaining landscapes for the lowermost Mississippi River.
Thriving Communities Webinars
The GRP’s Thriving Communities webinar series aims to spotlight the outcomes and best practices of awarded grant projects as they relate to improving the health, well-being, and resilience of communities in the Gulf Coast states. In 2021, Thriving Communities webinars featured discussions of research on climate migrants, culturally responsive interventions and strategies for increasing community capacity and resilience in Cambodian and Laotian communities in coastal Alabama, and the process of building a learning collaborative and research network focused on building capacity to test and promote practices that would improve mental health and disaster resilience.
