Hampton Roads has always lived with water. The tides shape our economy, our culture and our very identity. Yet today, that same water defines one of our greatest challenges — rising seas, sinking land and the growing pressure of climate change affecting every shoreline community. But this region is on the cusp of something extraordinary. The very geography that makes Hampton Roads vulnerable also positions it to become the global proving ground for coastal resilience and subsurface water regeneration. With its mix of scientific institutions, entrepreneurial networks, academic partners and public infrastructure leadership, Hampton Roads can move from being the nation’s second most flood-vulnerable region to being the world’s living laboratory for resilience innovation.
The urgency is undeniable. Sea levels in Hampton Roads are rising faster than almost anywhere else on the East Coast. The newly released Virginia Climate Assessment confirms what our communities live with every day: Some of the nation’s most acute climate risks are playing out right here. Traditionally, these threats have been viewed as liabilities. It is time to recognize them as opportunities to build a resilience-based economy, export solutions globally and secure our own future in the process.
At the heart of this transformation is RISE Resilience Innovations, a Norfolk-based nonprofit that has positioned Hampton Roads as the national leader in developing and commercializing coastal resilience technologies. Through its “Challenge” competitions and access to local testbeds, RISE has already invested more than $10 million in resilience startups. RISE’s mission is clear: build solutions here, deploy them everywhere.
Complementing RISE is 757 Collab, the regional entrepreneurial accelerator that turns ideas into enterprises. By embedding resilience and climate technology within its portfolio, 757 Collab ensures that Hampton Roads’ innovation economy is not just about high-tech apps and analytics; it’s also about the tangible technologies that will keep coastal cities livable.
Together, RISE and 757 Collab form a powerful platform: the former as the problem-solver, the latter as the builder and scaler. If RISE and 757 Collab represent the innovation ecosystem above ground, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District’s (HRSD) Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow (SWIFT) literally shows how innovation runs deep. SWIFT takes highly treated wastewater, purifies it to drinking water standards, and reintroduces it into the Potomac Aquifer, the region’s underground freshwater reserve. And HRSD’s resilience planning goes even further by proactively addressing risks to physical infrastructure and identifying opportunities for mitigation. SWIFT is more than infrastructure; it is a blueprint for global water resilience.
No regional economic ecosystem succeeds without a robust academic core. Through its Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR), Old Dominion University brings together faculty, students and community stakeholders to advance applied research and practical solutions. ICAR’s partnership with local governments, nonprofits and industry translates those solutions into tangible impact.
Together, RISE, SWIFT, ODU and 757 Collab embody a holistic vision of resilience — surface, shoreline and subsurface — each reinforcing the other.
Resilience must become not just a defensive strategy, but a growth strategy. In fact, “water technologies” is identified as a key industry cluster for growing the region’s economy in the just-completed 2025 GO VA Region 5 Growth & Diversification Plan. That means claiming our rightful identity: Hampton Roads — the global capital of coastal resilience.
The world is watching how coastal communities respond to climate change. Some will retreat; others will rebuild. Hampton Roads can lead. Our challenge is urgent, but our assets are unmatched. Let’s move from being defined by our vulnerability to being recognized for our leadership. Hampton Roads can, and should, show the world how to live, thrive and prosper with water.
William Donaldson, Ph.D., of Newport News is an associate professor in the Luter School of Business at Christopher Newport University, chairman of the board of 757 Collab, and a board member of RISE.
