{"663027":{"#nid":"663027","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Defense by Kyungmin Park","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPh.D. Defense\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nName: Kyungmin Park\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nTitle: Drivers of Coastal Sea Level and Flooding along the East Coast of the United States\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDate \u0026amp; Time: Monday, November 21, 2022, 1:00 pm\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nLocation:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIn person ES\u0026amp;T L1114\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nVirtual https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/7184656594?pwd=eXdidmkzNm40ekxhcHFIc2dkdmNLQT09\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nThesis Advisor: Dr. Emanuele Di Lorenzo (EAS)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommittee Members: Dr. Kevin A. Haas (CEE), Dr. Alexander Robel (EAS), Dr. Joel Kostka\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n(BIOS), Dr. Tal Ezer (ODU), Dr. Nadia Pinardi (UB)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nSummary\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCoastal cities and communities are on the frontline as sea-level rise induced by climate change\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nexpands the oceans and re-draws the maps of the coastline. Despite the emerging threats of sealevel\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nrise and flooding, the current water level observational networks and the modeling\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\napproaches for the U.S. East Coast are inadequate to resolve the combined effects of watershed\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nloading, the spatiotemporal variations of the extreme water level, and the compound flooding at\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthe scale of rivers, tributaries, creeks, and City\u0026rsquo;s block during hurricane events. These limitations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\npose challenges for understanding, predicting, and mitigating the regional and city-scale impacts\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nof climate extremes and flooding on coastal communities. They also imply that coastal decisionmakers\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nand planners are not equipped with adequate tools to inform coastal protection and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nmanagement strategies. The main goals of this thesis are to develop large-scale, three-dimensional,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nhigh-resolution coastal models to overcome the limitations of existing technologies and use them\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nto diagnose the role of extreme water level drivers along the East Coast of the United States.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAccordingly, chapter 1 introduces the drivers of extreme water levels along the U.S. East Coast.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIn chapter 2, I present a new modeling system that has been implemented to deliver a 3-day forecast\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nsystem in Chatham County (GA). This system that has been operational since 2019 is currently\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nbeing used by the Chatham Emergency Management Agency and the City of Savannah to design\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nnew emergency protocols and advance a city-wide resilience planning process. In Chapter 3 I use\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthis modeling system to conduct a series of hurricane hindcast and sensitivity experiments to\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nexamine the relative roles of extreme water level drivers during major coastal storms and quantify\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nits contributions to the spatial and temporal patterns of extreme water levels. Specifically, this\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nchapter investigates the important oceanic responses to hurricane forcing (e.g., change in Gulf\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nStream, Ekman transport and Coastally Trapped Waves) compared to the local atmospheric wind\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nand pressure forcing on the U.S. southeast coast. In Chapter 4, I expand the numerical modeling\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ncapability and domain over the entire U.S. East Coast to examine the persistent high water level\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nfollowing a hurricane. I find that baroclinic drivers linked to an oceanic adjustment cause the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nabnormal increase in water levels even after hurricanes have dissipated, which is twice as high as\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthe sea-level rise in 100 years (\u0026asymp;34 cm) on the Georgia coast. In Chapter 5, I conclude the works\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nby discussing how these new insights into the multiple drivers of abnormal water levels, both\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nduring and after hurricane events, fill critical knowledge gaps and data needs necessary to inform\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nbest practices to scientists, engineers and policymakers.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Drivers of Coastal Sea Level and Flooding along the East Coast of the United States"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2022-11-09 16:45:10","changed_gmt":"2022-11-09 16:45:10","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2022-11-21T13:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2022-11-21T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2022-11-21T15:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2022-11-21 18:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2022-11-21 20:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2022-11-21 20:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}