{"id":239848,"date":"2026-08-31T13:03:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T23:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=239848"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T23:10:20","slug":"ai-protect-hawaiis-coastal-freshwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/08\/31\/ai-protect-hawaiis-coastal-freshwater\/","title":{"rendered":"AI<\/abbr> project led by 糖心视频<\/abbr> aims to protect Hawaiʻi’s coastal freshwater"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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(Photo credit: Karsten Winegeart\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new project led by the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa will use artificial intelligence (AI<\/abbr>) to help predict how rising seas and stronger storms could threaten coastal freshwater supplies and ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Jonghyun “Harry” Lee of the 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Water Resources Research Center<\/a> and Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering<\/a> has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation<\/a> under its Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences program. 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa will serve as the lead institution on a three-year, nearly $1 million collaborative project, alongside the University of Texas at Austin, to advance AI<\/abbr> applications in geoscience.<\/p>\n

Rising seas, stronger storms, saltwater contamination of freshwater resources and coastal ecosystem degradation pose increasing threats to coastal communities. These environmental pressures impact drinking water supplies, agriculture, infrastructure, local economies and daily life for millions of people.<\/p>\n

To address these challenges, the joint project will develop fast, accessible AI<\/abbr> models to better understand how water exchanges between coastal aquifers and the ocean. By combining recent advances in AI<\/abbr> with traditional environmental modeling, the team aims to predict critical coastal risks\u2014such as seawater intrusion into freshwater aquifers and freshwater flowing from land into the ocean\u2014faster and more accurately.<\/p>\n

“This project will improve our understanding and prediction of how groundwater and the ocean interact in Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s coastal aquifers, helping communities better protect freshwater resources and coastal ecosystems from challenges, such as seawater intrusion and coastal inundation,” principal investigator Lee said.<\/p>\n

Advancing coastal science through next-gen AI<\/abbr><\/h2>\n

The researchers will develop a new system that combines AI<\/abbr> with proven physics models to better understand coastal water systems. This approach creates high-speed \u201csurrogate models\u201d capable of running complex simulations of groundwater and ocean interactions at a fraction of the cost, while preserving essential physics laws at the land-sea boundary.<\/p>\n

Key features and goals of the project include:<\/p>\n