2026 Lear-Conant Environmental Symposium
Sea Level Rise: Measurement, Understanding, Adaptation

Over the coming decades sea level rise, accelerated by climate change, will pose major challenges to densely populated coastal regions, including ecological and human impacts on coastal Connecticut and the Long Island Sound region. Relative sea level – the height of the sea level relative to land at a particular place – is a complex phenomenon affected by many variables, including water temperature, global sea level rise caused by melting ice, sedimentation, coastal infrastructure, and land subsidence.

This Lear-Conant Symposium will bring together dynamic researchers across varied disciplines and fields. Each of our speakers will discuss topics that consider the complexities of sea level, how we measure it, understand it, and what it means for human and ecological communities. This symposium builds on the strong tradition at Connecticut College of coastal salt marsh ecology and research on the impacts of seal level changes on tidal wetlands. The symposium will also provide an opportunity to discuss and explore what it means to care for places and communities that will be affected by sea level rise.

In conjunction with the symposium, we will be hosting a small Coastal-Climate Exposition that will feature local community groups, NGO's, student groups and more. The Expo will be held during the symposium lunch, with a different group each hosting a lunch table. Guests are free to mingle, network and visit each table.

We have limited space, but if you're interested in exhibition tabling information, please contact the center at gnce@conncoll.edu, subject line: SLR Expo.