Coastal Workforce Development Success: The U.S. Coastal Research Program & the Keystone Variable Concept

• In 25 years, six organizations have publicly called for coastal workforce development • The Keystone Variable Concept can be used to tackle complex problems flexibly • Coastal funding and academic training offer important opportunities impacting career • Passion is the strongest theme influencing students to join the coastal field • Pragmatic considerations impact student decisions to join the coastal sector Complex societal issues surrounding future climate impacts and responses within coastal regions represent multifaceted non-stationary problems requiring a large, diverse and skilled workforce to develop and evolve solutions. The coastal zone represents a present and future challenge as the global nexus of nature, society, infrastructure, and development. In the last 25 years, 1999-2024, several of U.S. organizations have formally called for increasing the coastal workforce as complex coastal issues grow surrounding changing environmental conditions related to coastal hazards (e.g., sea level rise, increased storm frequency and intensity) and increased societal pressures such as development. Has society responded to these calls for action and if not, how can we more effectively work to do so? This paper presents a broad overview of global coastal zone issues necessitating workforce development. We posit tactics for workforce development across employment sectors and highlight the Keystone Variable Framework used by the U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP) to target actions leading to coastal sector workforce growth. Lastly, we discuss coastal student survey results to glean current and future deterrents to coastal workforce development and how to overcome them. This paper represents a renewed and imperative call to action for globally developing the coastal workforce across industries and disciplines, providing a path that can be utilized across employment sectors.