Dog River Park: Mobile, AL
Some of the usual suspects in Alabama and Mississippi have been busy developing technical guidance on living shorelines. What’s different about these new documents is that they are aimed at property owners and contractors instead of practitioners, scientists, engineers, etc. Our goal, as a community of living shorelines practitioners, has been to push some of our knowledge down to these underserved groups in hopes that they might make use of our regional general permits for living shorelines in Alabama and Mississippi.
Well after a couple of years of hard work (and some delays), I’m happy to say that they are finally available. Please click on the links below to download the PDFs. These projects involved too many friends and agencies to list here in this post, so please be sure to review the acknowledgments in each document. However, I would like to express our collective gratitude to the primary funding agencies (NOAA and GOMA) as well as the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and the Southern Environmental Law Center for their support and hard work.
Living Shorelines: A Guide for Alabama Property Owners
Living Shorelines: A Technical Guide for Contractors in Alabama and Mississippi
{Edit: Fixed a problem with the links. The documents should load in the same browser window/tab now without trying to open a new one. Apologies for the troubles.}
The Department of Civil Engineering at the University of South Alabama is seeking to fill a funded Graduate Research Assistantship for a student interested in pursuing a Master of Science in Civil Engineering degree, or a Doctor of Science in Systems Engineering, with concentrations in structural and/or coastal engineering. The initial appointment is for one year (1/2016 – 12/2016) and renewal will be contingent upon quarterly performance reviews (for up to three years ending 12/2018). The position will be competitively funded with a stipend and tuition. The qualified applicant should have an earned BS or MS degree in civil engineering by 12/31/2015, have an interest in coastal and/or structural engineering, and meet all admission standards of the Graduate School, and Department of Civil Engineering, at USA. Applicants should prepare the following materials and upload them to Academic Jobs using the link below: (1) brief statement of interest, (2) resume, (3) university transcripts, (4) a list of three references, (5) a technical writing sample, and (6) GRE and TOEFL/IELTS scores (if applicable).
Application Submission Link: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/5724 (click on the “Apply” link)
Position
The successful candidate will be appointed to a Graduate Research Assistant position at the University of South Alabama (USA) in the Department of Civil Engineering and will be expected to pursue a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE), or a Doctor of Science in Systems Engineering, in the specialty areas of coastal and/or structural engineering. The University of South Alabama is a public university in Mobile, Alabama and the campus is located 30 miles from the white-sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. The MSCE program at USA focuses on civil engineering in the coastal environment and department faculty research expertise includes the traditional areas of water resources, environmental, transportation, geotechnical and structural engineering as well as coastal engineering.
Research
The research responsibilities of the student will be to assist in a five-year funded research project focused on improving the resiliency of the built environment to disasters and natural hazards. The project requires original research, laboratory work, numerical analysis, and interpretation of results. The student will perform physical modeling of wave-structure interactions in our new 25-meter wave channel. Additional project details will be made available at an appropriate time. The ideal candidate will:
1) Have demonstrated knowledge of common numerical analysis software (e.g., Matlab)
2) Have demonstrated experience working in a laboratory
3) Have experience or the ability to learn 3D rendering software (e.g., SolidWorks)
4) Be familiar with 3D printing (rapid prototyping) and conventional fabrication techniques
5) Be physically capable of performing their duties in the laboratory facility
6) Be able to travel to meetings and conferences
7) Be legally able to attend school in the United States without sponsorship or travel assistance
Mobile, Alabama – The ability of communities to recover from natural and manmade disasters is strongly linked to the resilience of their infrastructure. That is why the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced yesterday that it has awarded a $20 million, five-year agreement with Colorado State University and 10 other partners, including the University of South Alabama, to establish the Community Resilience Center of Excellence. Click on the logo (top right of post) to link to the Center web site.
The goal of the Center is to develop a risk-based approach to evaluate potential strategies that improve the resilience of the built environment to natural hazards and other significant manmade disruptions.
The resilience tools that the Center develops will address known and frequent hazards, and gauge the ability of communities and the built environment to adapt to changing conditions and recover quickly from large-scale disasters.
The University of South Alabama’s Department of Civil Engineering will provide their unique coastal engineering expertise related to hurricane storm surge and waves. Drs. Bret Webb and Scott Douglass will help develop risk-based tools that address vulnerability and resilience of the built environment to coastal hazards like storm surge, waves, erosion and even sea level rise. Webb and Douglass recently authored nationwide engineering guidance for assessing the exposure and vulnerability of coastal transportation infrastructure to extreme events.
“With well over 50% of the U.S. population living within 50 miles of a coastline,” says Dr. Webb, who is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, “much of our nation’s critical infrastructure is vulnerable to coastal hazards and the expected impacts of long-term sea level rise.”
“What’s more troubling,” Dr. Webb continues, “is that demand in these coastal areas is increasing, putting more stress on our built environment and underscoring the need for improving the resiliency of our coastal communities.”
Dr. Scott Douglass, Professor of Civil Engineering, added, “Based on both experience and study, we understand that the built environment along our nation’s shorelines is highly vulnerable today, and will face increased pressures due to the expected impacts of climate change in the future.”
“However, the good news,” Dr. Douglass continued, “is that making our coastal infrastructure more resilient to frequent storm events today will also reduce their vulnerability in the future.”
With authorization from NIST to begin their efforts immediately, the multi-disciplinary research team, which also includes experts from California Polytechnic University (Pomona), Rice University, Texas A&M University (TAMU), TAMU-Kingsville, and the University of Washington, is expected to hold their first organizational meeting soon.
Last week I was honored to receive my Board Certification as a Diplomate of Coastal Engineering (D.CE) from the Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port and Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE). This certification demonstrates that I have specific technical expertise in civil engineering acquired through advanced education and training, as well as professional practice experience. In lieu of a specific licensing process that distinguishes specialized practitioners from general ones, this relatively new certification program (2009) plays an important role in elevating the competence of the civil engineering profession.
ACOPNE is one of three academies of the American Society of Civil Engineers participating in the Civil Engineering Certification process. Board Certification through ACOPNE was established in 2009 to recognize those engineers possessing advanced knowledge, skill, and training in the fields of coastal, ocean, port and navigation engineering. The distinction of Board Certification and the credentials (diplomate status) that it provides represent one of the highest designations available to identify those civil engineers with exceptional skill and reputation.
Board Certification through ACOPNE requires that individuals be actively engaged in the practice of their specialized area of engineering, have obtained a baccalaureate degree in engineering, a master’s degree (or over 25 years of experience) in their area of specialization, and a professional engineering license. Click {here} to learn more about the ASCE Civil Engineering Certification academies and their requirements.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration recently released a new Hydraulic Engineering Circular focused on assessing extreme events in coastal areas. More information can be found {here}.
This new document is a second, stand alone volume (Volume 2) for the very popular HEC 25 document, “Highways in the Coastal Environment.” The guidance document, authored by Scott Douglass, Bret Webb, and Roger Kilgore, provides an overview of the critical coastal processes that damage transportation infrastructure and how those processes might be modified under extreme events and climate change. In keeping with the tradition of other HEC guidance documents, the manual also provides a three-level assessment methodology for performing vulnerability assessments.
The document is written for a national audience but contains regionally specific information about coastal processes, possible impacts of climate variability on those processes, and methods for assessing vulnerability in coastal regions. The authors made a concerted effort to ensure that the document would be understood by engineers and non-engineers alike.
