Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.3390/su18062815

Publication Title

Sustainability

Volume

18

Issue

6

Pages

2815

Abstract

As communities face intensifying climate hazards, it is vital to strengthen resilience in ways that explicitly prioritize social equity. This study examines how higher education institutions can better support government, nonprofit, and community partners in advancing equity-centered coastal resilience in the U.S. Utilizing a qualitative research design, we analyze discussions among researchers and practitioners during a three-day workshop. We present a framework derived from a thematic analysis of breakout group transcripts from a three-day national virtual workshop involving 113 researchers and practitioners. The analysis identified four core themes: the necessity of aligning projects with community-defined priorities; the foundational role of long-term trust and relationship-building; the requirement for flexible funding to support sustained engagement; and the value of interdisciplinary, multifunctional teams. Findings indicate that while engaged and applied research can significantly advance equitable outcomes, academic researchers face systemic barriers, including rigid tenure timelines and insufficient institutional infrastructure. Consequently, we offer a three-pronged framework centered on early and continuous engagement, robust collaboration with extension services, and supportive university infrastructure. This framework provides practical guidance for institutions to transition from traditional ‘town and gown’ models toward meaningful, community-embedded, and equity-driven coastal resilience partnerships.

Data Availability

Article states: "The workshop and summary data that support the findings are available in the report at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/publicservice_pubs/74/ (accessed on 4 March 2026)."

Rights

© 2026 by the authors.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

ORCID

0000-0003-3599-1417 (Yusuf), 0000-0002-1612-8805 (Whytlaw), 0000-0001-5431-9314 (Saitgalina), 0000-0002-6731-9302 (Nwandu-Vincent), 0000-0002-0340-2705 (Anuar), 0000-0002-0472-3068 (Behr)

Original Publication Citation

Yusuf, J.-E., Whytlaw, J. L., Saitgalina, M., Nwandu-Vincent, O. M., Anuar, K. A., Allen, T., & Behr, J. (2026). Equity in coastal resilience: A framework for university engagement in community-based projects. Sustainability, 18(6), Article 2815. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18062815

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