About Us – Our Objective

Research within our group covers a wide range of nearshore topics from the analysis of wave breaking to sediment transport to rip currents and the causes of Erosional Hot Spots.

However, in each case, our approach is to begin by investigating the fundamental aspects of the relevant processes first.

Some examples are:

1) Wave Breaking - Visual (optical) remote sensing of the ocean is considered the best available ground truth for observations of wave breaking (i.e. you know a wave is breaking when you see it).

But how is wave breaking quantified in digitized video data?

How is active wave breaking separated from relict foam?

Our present research investigates how the optical signal is related to the underlying breaking waves. In addition, we are studying how optical and microwave sensors compare/differ in the imaging of shallow water breaking waves.

2) Sediment transport - Beaches are important natural resources that typically exhibit cyclic behavior of alternating erosion and accretion over the course of a year. The processes that lead to offshore sand transport (beach erosion) are fairly well understood; however, the processes that are involved in the onshore movement of sand (beach accretion) are largely unknown. Information about the potential for recovery is crucial in deciding if infrastructure near the coast (e.g. bridges, highways) will need immediate protection after a severe storm season (as occur, for instance, during El Nino years in the Pacific northwest) or if the natural recovery of the beach during the following summer will lead to a large enough beach to withstand the effects of the next storm.

What are the wave conditions that are conducive to onshore bar movement?

How does the presence of wave breaking on the bar affect bar recovery?

What are the relative importance of suspended and bedload transport during wave conditions that are conducive to beach recovery?

Is onshore sediment transport less pronounced in situations where plug flow formation is unlikely?

3) Erosional Hot Spots - Erosional Hot Spots (EHS) are relatively isolated areas of the beach that are eroding much faster than there surroundings. Some potential causes of EHS are wave scattering from nearshore bathymetric features (sea stacks, submerged breakwaters, nearshore borrow pits).

What is the importance of wave reflection to the wave scattering problem from nearshore depressions?

Rip embayments are a common but little studied type of EHS found on the West Coast. What are the representative scales of rip current embayments (a type of EHS)?

How do rip embayments form and evolve over time? What are their characteristic scales?