Publications

Coastal risk reduction features are often built to protect infrastructure and ecosystems from damaging waves, sea level rise, and shoreline erosion. Engineers often use predictive numerical modeling tools, such as Delft3D to help design optimal intervention strategies. Still, their use by coastal managers for optimizing the design of living shorelines in complex geomorphic environments has been limited. [Read more…] about Delft3D as a Tool for Living Shoreline Design Selection by Coastal Managers

1.1 Background The coastline of Galveston Island near the western end of the Galveston seawall features a prominent erosional hotspot. The beach at that location in front of Dellanera RV Park experiences the highest erosion rates (-8 ft per year) of Galveston Island. Due to the proximity to Highway 3005, the main evacuation route for Galveston in the event of severely inclement weather, the beach is a crucial line of defense. Without proper dune height and berm width, storm surge and wave attack could breach the highway and prevent evacuation, trapping residents on the island. Various nourishment efforts at this site have proven to provide only limited and temporary protection due to the highly erosive nature of the location and thus additional mitigation measures are being investigated.

Centrifugal pumps are used for pumping slurry from the dredge cutter head or drag head located in front of the suction pipe inlet to the final placement site or dredge hopper. Cavitation is an important phenomenon that must be avoided on the suction side of the pump that is quantified by the net positive suction head. [Read more…] about Fluid Dynamics of Dredging

The fate of unconfined dredged sediment placed as a submerged “feeder” berm in the nearshore region of South Padre Island (SPI), Texas, was investigated through a particle tracer study over the duration of 15 months. Unconfined sediment feeder systems can be a desirable alternative to traditional direct beach placement of nourishment material because the feeder systems are less intrusive to the beach environment and often less expensive. [Read more…] about Particle tracer analysis for submerged berm placement of dredged material near South Padre Island, Texas

Vegetation is an important feature of coastal dunes and is often managed to stabilize restored dunes and provide coastal protection. Despite a high investment in planting and management efforts, little is known about how vegetation is affected by wind and wave run-up. The objectives of this study were to 1) investigate the lift forces and drag moments experienced by coastal dune vegetation from wind and wave run-up and 2) relate them to flow properties and plant morphology. Panicum amarum, Ammophila breviligulata, A. arenaria and Cakile maritima were subjected to laboratory wind and wave run-up conditions. [Read more…] about The effects of plant structure and flow properties on the physical response of coastal dune plants to wind and wave run-up

Infrastructure must become more resilient as the global climate changes and also more affordable in the economic and political context of a post-COVID world. We can solve this dual challenge and drive global infrastructure investment into a more sustainable direction by taking our cues from Nature.

The development and expansion of ponds within otherwise vegetated coastal marshes is a primary driver of marsh loss throughout the world. [Read more…] about Mechanisms of Pond Expansion in a Rapidly Submerging Marsh

As many coastal areas of the world suffer from chronic erosion, innovative solutions beyond traditional local nourishment must be explored. One such solution is the implementation of mega-nourishments (MNs), where a large sediment volume is deposited in a single location and redistributed via natural processes, thereby feeding adjacent beaches. [Read more…] about One-Line Modeling of Mega-Nourishment Evolution

Salt marshes are valuable but vulnerable coastal ecosystems that adapt to relative sea level rise (RSLR) by accumulating organic matter and inorganic sediment. The natural limit of these processes defines a threshold rate of RSLR beyond which marshes drown, [Read more…] about Onset of runaway fragmentation of salt marshes

A unique set of field measurements taken along Galveston beach have been compiled to give annual shoreline positions over the period 2010–2016. These have been used, in conjunction with statistical and mathematical modelling, to gain insights into the response of the shoreline after the landfall of Hurricane Ike in 2008, which caused extensive erosion and loss of material from the beach. [Read more…] about Modelling the morphodynamic evolution of Galveston beach, Gulf of Mexico, following Hurricane Ike in 2008