Documented trends in rising sea levels, storminess, and extreme wave heights have the potential to increase the frequency and magnitude of coastal change hazards, increasing risks to coastal infrastructure and environmental resources. Coastal planners and decision makers need information about the impacts of future hazards in order to apply mitigation...
:
________________________________________________________________________
Peter Ruggiero
Documented trends in rising sea levels, storminess, and extreme wave
This dissertation explores one overarching question relevant to the
paleoclimate of the latest Pleistocene glacial cycle (approximately the last
130,000 years): “How did spatial and temporal evolution of ocean
temperature, both at the surface and interior, relate to other parts of the
climate system in the late Pleistocene?” Results from...
The results presented in this dissertation address a number of questions regarding late Pleistocene and Holocene ice-sheet and climate interactions, spanning disciplines involving paleoclimatology and atmospheric science. These studies use various techniques in geochemistry, climate modeling, and ice-sheet modeling to address ice- sheet response to climate and the attendant interactions...
Coastal flood hazard zones and the design of coastal defenses are often devised using either the maximum recorded total water level (TWL) or a 'design' event such as the 100-year return-level flood, usually projected from observed extreme events. Despite technological advances driving more consistent instrumental records of wave heights and...
Coastal flooding and erosion are major concerns for low lying coastal communities -- particularly in light of accelerated sea level rise and climate change. To improve quantitative understanding of the physical drivers of both flooding and coastal landscape change, this dissertation explores coastal morphodynamics bridging the land-sea interface on modally...
Coastal communities throughout the US West Coast and elsewhere are facing the daunting task of preparing for climate change impacts, particularly the hazards from increased flooding and erosion. With sea-level rise, changing storminess patterns, and possible changes to the frequency and severity of major El Niño events, communities are already...
Coastal and estuarine flooding and erosion events are usually driven by the cumulative effect of multiple individual processes like waves, streamflow, storm surge, and/or tides. This dissertation focuses on separating the influence of the regional and local-scale geomorphologic and hydrodynamic processes driving variability in the magnitude and impacts of extreme...
Oregon’s foredunes are part of a dynamic coastal environment that constantly evolves in response to both ecological and physical forces. Invasive beachgrasses have outcompeted native dune grass in the region and have influenced the shape of Oregon’s foredunes via species-specific biophysical feedback mechanisms. As climate change induced sea-level rise will...
Recent coastal disasters (e.g., Hurricane Sandy, Typhoon Haiyan) and chronic issues (e.g., Florida's "nuisance flooding") provide numerous examples of coastal communities struggling to adapt in the face of climate change impacts. Decision-makers and the public alike must reconcile the lack of "fit" between a rapidly changing environment and the effects...
Understanding sandbar dynamics and variability is integral to developing a predictive
capacity for nearshore flows, sediment transport, morphological change, and
ultimately for determining coastline exposure to damaging storm waves. Along the
high-energy U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) coast, sandbars typically dominate the
bathymetry of the active zone. Here we report on...
:
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter Ruggiero
Understanding sandbar dynamics and variability is integral to developing