Research in my lab focuses on understanding and enhancing the sustainability of coastal ecosystems and societies. We are particularly interested in tackling issues related to resource management, shoreline development, and urbanization. Most of our current projects involve: 1) coastlines as coupled coupled social-ecological systems, 2) participatory conservation and management of ecosystems, and 3) social outcomes of environmental management.

Embracing a social-ecological systems perspective, our research typically involves coupling social science survey or interview methodologies (e.g., stated preference surveys, choice experiments, fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping) with biophysical and ecological data, and increasingly geospatial analyses and scenario modeling. We routinely collaborate with diverse teams of natural and social scientists, engineers, practitioners, and stakeholders.