Research

Potential Future Projects:

  1. Novel Financing of Green Infrastructure: Create novel financial structures to actualize economic and environmental benefits of green infrastructure projects.
  2. Tidal Dynamics: Developing hybrid-harmonic models of tidal inundation in estuaries and lagoons for high-temporal resolution estimates of nuisance flooding.
  3. Trash Fate and Transport: Develop a better understanding of trash generation, transport, and fate in riverine and estuarine systems to develop better best practices for interception and management.

Currently Funded Projects:

2026-2031

Innovative Solutions for Improving Water Quality and Strengthing Local Economies in the Gulf of America Watershed

Funder: US EPA

  • Grant to investigate novel solutions to reduce nutrient pollution into the Gulf of America using enhanced management and nutrient anaerobic treatment units (ATUs). 

  • Developing novel financing mechanisms for maintenance of ATUs using ecosystem benefits and nutrient recovery.

2026

Integrating Project Duration and Economic Discounting into Wetland Restoration Decision Support

Funder: Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
  • Developing an analytical framework to integrate project duration and economic discounting of future benefits and costs into coastal wetland restoration project selection

2024-2026

Innovative Finance for National Forests

Funder: U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Innovative Finance for National Forests Grant Program 
  • Grant to analyze the impacts of forest restoration on runoff, erosion, and management costs borne by the Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District near the Cleveland National Forest. This project aims to determine the value of upstream restoration activities to flood control districts.

2023-2025

Direct Technical Assistance, Ecological Effects of Sea-Level Rise Program

Funder: NOAA 
  • Follow-on grant for the NOAA Ecological Effects of Sea-Level Rise (ESLR) program to support investigation of ecosystem co-benefits of wetland restoration in a cost-benefit analysis framework. Encouraged to submit full proposal by March 15th after submitting Letter of Intent, funding is transferable to other institutions.

2023-2026

Newport Bay Water, Sediment and Microplastics Modelling

Funder: California State Water Boards
  • Investigating microplastics transport in Newport Bay using Delft3D model to better understand microplastics fate and transport. 

Historical Projects

2022-2023

Exploring the Coastal Community Co-Benefits of Wave-Energy Converters for Wetland and Beach Ecosystems

U.S. Department of Energy – Water Power Technologies Office
  • Grant to explore the role of wave energy conversion (WEC) devices in shoreline and ecosystem protection along the Oregon coastline and situate WECs within the spectrum of green-grey infrastructure. 

2016 - 2020

Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainable Environments with Sediment (SedRISE)

Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise Program - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Enviro-Financial Modelling
    • Developed a stochastic environmental and financial model to create an Environmental Impact Bond (EIB) for reducing environmentally damaging upstream erosion at US/MEX border and derive return on investment for multiple interventions.
  • Sediment Transport and Hydromorphodynamic Modelling
    • Co-developed, calibrated and validated two-dimensional sediment transport and morphodynamic model (Delft3D) of Newport Bay for prediction of future bay and wetland elevations under dynamic watershed loads and sea-level rise (SLR).
    • Developed and validated state of the art surrogate modelling techniques to significantly reduce model complexity and runtimes (>99.99% increase in computational efficiency with minimal loss of accuracy).
    • Leveraged calibrated model to investigate impacts of extreme sedimentation events on marsh survival in the face of sea level rise.