Hydrodynamics and Transport of Chemicals in Beaches Subjected to Tides and Waves: Evaluating Coastal Resilience

M. Gordon Wolman Seminar
 

Hydrodynamics and transport of chemicals in beaches subjected to tides and waves: Evaluating coastal resilience

Speaker: Michel C. Boufadel, PhD, PE, BCEE, F.ASCE
Distinguished Professor, John A. Reif Jr. Dept. Civil and Env. Engineering
Director, Center for Natural Resources
Newark College of Engineering, The New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tuesday, September 20^th at 3pm 
Location: Homewood Campus in Shaffer 302 and virtual

For Zoom information, contact, Caroline Michuki cmichuk1@jhu.edu

Abstract. We address in the first part of the talk, the large-scale factors impacting beach hydrodynamics, and they are: freshwater buoyancy, tides, waves and evaporation. 
We demonstrate based on data and numerical simulations using the model MARUN the nonlinear interaction between these factors. We present a parameterization that accounts for waves when scaling up, and we highlight that evaporation increases the surface salinity by many folds, especially near the high tide line. We also explore the role of heterogeneity and its impact on the mixing of solutes and on the formation of capillary barriers in beaches where the water moves in direction different than the maximum pressure gradient.  

The second part of the talk addresses the quantification of resilience, and we present our Community Intrinsic Resilience Index (CIRI) that draws information from five sectors: Energy, ecosystem, health, socio-economic, and transportation.  It allows communities to quantify resilience using a spatial tool, such as GIS (by tracing polygons). We argue that only by integrating infrastructure and community resilience that one could accurately compute the intrinsic resilience of a region.