The Coastal and Marine Institute Laboratory (CMIL), formerly known as the Coastal Waters Laboratory, is an academic

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physic ...

operated by the College of Sciences of San Diego State University (SDSU), in the

Point Loma Point Loma (Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community within the city of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the w ...

district of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is located on a coastal site at northern San Diego Bay, on the former grounds of the closed San Diego Naval Training Center, now part of the

Liberty Station Liberty Station is a mixed-use development in San Diego, California, on the site of the former Naval Training Center San Diego. It is located in the Point Loma community of San Diego. It has a waterfront location, on a boat channel off of San Diego ...

redevelopment project in Point Loma.

Research

The Laboratory focuses research on environmental and ecological problems on the

Southern California Bight The Southern California Bight is a 692-kilometer-long (430 mi) stretch of curved coastline that runs along the west coast of the United States and Mexico, from Point Conception in California to Punta Colonet in Baja California, plus the area o ...

coastline in

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

, caused by

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

in the coastal environment at land-water interfaces, such as

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

Current Research Projects

*Coastal GIS Center *Wetlands Restoration Center (Pacific Estuarine Research Lab) *Coastal and Marine Ecology Group *Beach Water Quality Center

HPWREN

Data is transferred back from the Laboratory via the High Performance Research and Education Network (HPWREN).

Equipment

*50,000 square foot Coastal Waters Laboratory *10,000 square feet devoted to outdoor aquaria and a greenhouse *Continuous flow seawater system from San Diego Bay *Large hall for classes, lectures, and workshops on resource issues *Boat maintenance and SCUBA diving facility *Specialized analytical, research, and wet laboratories, including: **Coastal Zone GIS Laboratory **Virus and Pathogen Laboratory

Coastal Zone Campus

Adjacent to the CMIL laboratory complex is another research laboratory, operated by the Metropolitan Wastewater Department (MWWD) of the

City of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, in order to consolidate marine monitoring and analytical operations. Together, this has created a “Coastal Zone Campus” on San Diego Bay to allow mutual access to and sharing of new and innovative research ideas and activities among federal regional, and local entities, and nationally known scientists and experts, in order to exchange information related to the coastal zone environment.

External links