Scientific investigations are organized into three tasks that are distinguished by time scale, with the implication that the later tasks, focused on the present and future, are the most interdisciplinary.

The four project tasks are:

• Task 1: NGOM project and information management
• Task 2: Holocene evolution of NGOM coast climate, geomorphology, and sea-level
• Task 3: Decadal - century scale evolution of NGOM coast climate, ecosystems, and landforms
• Task 4: 21st century NGOM coast landscape and human community structure

The project study region covers the central northern Gulf of Mexico coastal margins of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama between Sabine Lake and Perdido Bay and extends seaward to the 100 meter isobath at the continental shelf edge. Landward, the study region covers the low relief Gulf Coastal Plain underlain by Holocene and Pleistocene sediments to roughly just north of the Pleistocene – Pliocene unconformity outcrop.