About

How Does the Task Force Coordinate?How Does the Task Force Coordinate?

Federal agencies have been working together on the topic of sea level rise for over a decade, conducting collaborative research to produce sea level rise projections for the U.S. as a critical input to the National Climate Assessment. In 2024, after years of informal collaboration, the U.S. Global Change Research Program officially adopted the Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change as an interagency working group.

The mission of the Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change is to foster meaningful interagency collaboration, co-development, and consensus on the science of sea level change and its associated impacts on ecosystems, communities, and economies.

The Task Force will:

1. Serve as the primary federal forum for enhancing awareness and fostering coordination of interagency sea level change science;

2. Provide editorial input for and curation of the content appearing on joint federal sea level resources;

3. Publish a summary of sea level change science to serve as a foundational input to the National Climate Assessment; and

4. Work with federal agencies to ensure that federal sea level information represents the latest state of the science that is fit-for-purpose, nationally consistent, and authoritative.

Why Is This Task Force Needed?Why Is This Task Force Needed?

There is no single federal agency responsible for all aspects of understanding sea level rise and its related impacts. Each agency involved in the Task Force contributes critical information, observations, and research. All these agencies also apply sea level information to a variety of use cases to meet their agency and users needs.

This Task Force provides the space for agencies to actively collaborate and build on past successes in this space and to advance the availability of next-generation sea level information for decision-makers.

Where Does the Task Force Operate? Where Does the Task Force Operate?

The Task Force sits under the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP)—a federal program that coordinates the efforts of 15 member agencies that conduct or use research and services related to global environmental change and its impacts on society. USGCRP provides a venue for collaboration across agencies to advance knowledge and accessible, usable science and decision-support services that respond to climate and global change risks, and help the Nation identify opportunities for a more resilient future. Together, USGCRP participants address global change challenges that require capabilities from across the federal government.

As an interagency working group of USGCRP, the Task Force builds connections with and contributes to other interagency efforts to advance science and support decision-making, including providing foundational science for the USGCRP-produced National Climate Assessment.

Steering Committee of Task Force

• Hilary Stockdon, USGS (Co-Chair)
• Mark Osler, NOAA (Co-Chair)
• Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA (Co-Chair)
• Chris Weaver, EPA
• Christina Lindemer, FEMA
• Shubhra Misra, DoD
• Will Veatch, USACE

Technical Body of Task Force

• Ben Hamlington, NASA/JPL (Co-Chair)
• Emily Himmelstoss, USGS (Co-Chair)
• Greg Dusek, NOAA (Co-Chair)