From Floodwaters to Rip Currents: Nearshore Science for Safer Beaches

Coastal regions around the world are under increasing pressures from industrialization and changing environmental hazards. This talk will focus on recent nearshore coastal oceanographic research and how it is being applied to community planning related to water quality and beach safety.

Heavy rainfall causes flooding of inland industrial and agricultural sites, resulting in the release of contaminants, nutrients, and debris to the coastal ocean. This leads to various impacts including algae blooms, fish kills, and human health. Numerical model simulations using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) were used to study the ocean pathways of land-sourced contaminants in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence (2018) in the southeast USA. Maps of the onset and duration of hypothetical water quality hazards for a range of weather conditions provide guidance to managers on the timing of recreational swimming advisories and water quality sampling.

Rip currents are fast seaward flows that disperse contaminants and marine organisms and are the leading swimmer hazard on surf beaches world-wide. Research employing field observations, large-scale laboratory studies, and numerical modeling has recently improved understanding of multiple rip current types. In addition to ‘bathymetric’ rip currents that form when waves break on channeled sandbars, ‘transient’ rip currents emerge stochastically when breaking waves are directionally spread. Physical measurements and theoretical understanding of rip-current types were applied to assess and guide improvements to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rip-current hazard likelihood forecast model.

Seminario virtual por zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/92564847491?pwd=KhgZUty1gedDDLLUqhlxsfdon87aXc.1

Lugar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/92564847491?pwd=KhgZUty1gedDDLLUqhlxsfdon87aXc.1

Fecha: 11-09-2026

Hora: 11:30 am