Seminar: Jesse E. McNinch – US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Field Research Facility

UNC-CH’s Department of Marine Sciences is proud to host a seminar by Jesse E. McNinch, Ph.D. This event is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27th, at 3:35pm in room G201 on the ground floor of Murray Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This seminar will also be broadcast live to both UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences room 222 and online via Zoom.

Presenter Affiliation: Oceanographer; Field Research Facility, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

Title:  New Observational Tools Investigating Meso-scale Coastal Processes: where the rubber-meets-the-road in coastal management

Abstract: One of the many challenges facing coastal management today, from large federal projects like harbor dredging and beach renourishment to individual homes in small coastal communities, include reliable forecasts of coastal processes over meso-scale time periods (seasons-decade) and space (100m-km). Problems at these temporal and spatial scales are common; effecting cost benefit analyses and engineering strategies for multi-million dollar projects as well as shaping regional business and development patterns. Providing actionable scientific forecasts and engineering guidance to management, however, remains a stretch to our existing state of knowledge. Numerical models that couple oceanographic forces with sediment transport have shown some skill over smaller time periods and space but scaling them up is expensive, from a computational and financial perspective, and observational data to further develop and evaluate morphodynamic models at larger scales are scarce. The Radar Inlet Observing System (RIOS) is designed, in part, to help fill this observational gap by providing hourly, meter-scale resolution over several kilometers and to operate continuously through storms and fair weather for seasons and years. RIOS results from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, namely shoreline erosional hotspots from Nags Head to Kitty Hawk and sediment transport through Oregon Inlet, exemplifies these new observational tools and the insight gained in tackling complex, meso-scale coastal processes.