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Coupled Barrier-backbarrier System Responses to Long-term Coastal Change

April 7, 2015, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location Science Hall - 102 the Sokol Room
Posted InCollege of Science and Mathematics

Coastal barrier islands face great threats over the coming century due to accelerated relative sea-level (RSL) rise and storm impacts. Recent theoretical models suggest that barrier islands are intrinsically morphodynamic features, responding to RSL rise on decadal to millennial timescales in complex ways through interactions between shoreface processes and barrier overwash. This presentation will focus on the dynamic interactions between RSL rise, crossand alongshore sediment exchanges, overwash processes, and coupled barrier-back-barrier behaviors. Specifically, it will address three fundamental questions:

  1. What is the role of complex and variable antecedent topography on coupled barrier-back-barrier response to RSL rise?
  2. What is the dynamic role of variable rates of back-barrier accommodation creation and filling via sediment / marsh accretion on barrier response to long-term RSL rise?
  3. What is the role of marsh platform width, elevation, and evolution (accretion and/or progradation vs. deterioration and conversion to lagoon) on barrier response to RSL rise?

About Dr. Lorenzo-Trueba, MSU

Dr. Lorenzo-Trueba joined the Earth and Environmental Studies department as assistant professor in Fall 2014, and is currently recruiting motivated graduate students. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid, Spain, and his Ph.D. degree from the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota. After that he served as Postdoctoral Investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Earth Science Department at Rice University. His research yields conceptual and computer tools to improve our understanding of the interactions between the coastal geological framework, geomorphic processes, and the economics of human shoreline protection measures, and how these affect the resilience of coastal development to longterm hazards of storms and sea-level rise.