The Water Institute of the Gulf, based in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is a not-for-profit, independent applied research and technical services institution with a mission to help coastal and deltaic communities thoughtfully prepare for an uncertain future. Through an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, our work helps create more resilient communities, thriving economies, and healthy environment.

Founded in 2012, by state, local, and coastal leaders, the Institute’s mission is to connect the vast knowledge about coastal, river, and delta systems researchers have accumulated over the decades and apply it to coastal challenges in Louisiana and beyond. The Institute links academic, public, private sector, and nonprofit scientific research and conducts applied research to inform and improve decision making.

In 2020, Louisiana’s Governor named the Institute as the state’s Coastal Innovation and Collaboration Hub with the purpose of gathering the expertise that is currently disbursed across government, universities, nonprofits, communities, and private firms into a single focal point for collaboration. In addition, this hub housed at the Institute will be the home of a model repository to provide access to researchers and technical experts to models and databases for better collaborative research.

The Institute’s coastal ecology, human dimensions, applied geosciences, and coastal and deltaic systems modeling team members work hand in hand on projects to provide a holistic, integrated, and nuanced approach to complex challenges.

The Water Institute of the Gulf, The University of New Orleans and the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences at UNO collaborate on research projects and in the pursuit of new research initiatives. Six of the Institute’s technical team members are UNO graduates with five of those team members currently serving as adjunct facility at UNO. Two additional technical team members are pursuing advanced degrees at UNO and the Institute regularly works with UNO interns and graduate students on a variety of work. In addition to the sharing of students and researchers, the Institute and UNO share many resources such as field and laboratory equipment to make that work possible.