5/17/2021: Our new paper on modeling wave-mud interaction is published in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. Congratulations to Elham Sharifineyestani for publishing her second journal paper from her Ph.D. dissertation. Check it out here (open access).
5/1/2021: Dr. Navid Tahvildari received tenure and is promoted to associate professor.
11/1/2020: Our new paper on sea level rise impacts on coastal infrastructure is now published in Natural Hazards Review. SLR intensifies storm surge flooding over transportation infrastructure nonlinearly, and bathtub model is generally more conservative. Check it out here.
9/1/2020: Dr. Tahvildari will be a Co-PI on a new exciting project funded by NSF. This interdisciplinary project aims for real-time modeling of coastal flooding using AI algorithms that will integrate sensor data on overland flooding with hydrodynamic modeling. Read more about it here.
9/1/2020: Lauren Sommers was selected for the Virginia Seagrant Graduate Fellowship. She will work on understanding sea level rise impacts on coastal erosion using modeling, satellite, and in-situ data. Congratulations Lauren!
9/1/2020: Lauren Sommers was selected for the Virginia Seagrant Graduate Fellowship. She will work on understanding sea level rise impacts on coastal erosion using modeling, satellite, and in-situ data. Congratulations Lauren!
1/15/2020: Welcome to new EHG members, Ramin Familkhalili (Postdoctoral Research Associate), Lauren Sommers (Ph.D. student), and Stephen Greiling (Undergraduate researcher)!
12/15/2019: Elham Sharifineyestani (Ph.D.) and Akash Sahu (M.S.) graduated. Congratulations to Elham and Akash!
9/27/2019: Three papers were published in September. Tahvildari and Sharifineyestani (2019) in Coastal Engineering discuss development of a new phase-resolving wave model for propagation of surface waves over viscoelastic mud. We show the substantial effect that mud elasticity can have on wave dissipation and frequency modulation. Shen et al. (2019) in Journal of Hydrology discuss application of a 2D hydrodynamic+1D pipe flow model for inland flooding for flood risk assessment due to combined effect of storm tide and rainfall-driven flow in an urban watershed in Norfolk, VA. The model uses storm tides water levels as coastal boundary condition and enables studying flood transition zones in an urban area, i.e. it identifies zones where source of flood transitions from storm tide which is primarily the coastal area, to rainfall-driven flow which is primarily in inland regions. Bilkovic et al. (2019) in Ocean and Coastal Management analyze geospatial and water quality data to assess potential impacts of boat wakes on shoreline erosion in small waterways, and provide an overview of policies in the Chesapeake Bay states to address boat wake-induced erosion. Check out the publications page for more information.
8/1/2019: EHG is awarded with three recent research grants which will start in summer of 2019. One project will involve integrating hydrodynamic and biological processes in seagrass, the two processes that are often studied separately. This project will have substantial computational and field components. Another project involves measurement of flow, oxygen, and water quality indicators around hypolimnetic aerators installed in Lake Prince and Western Branch Reservoir to assess their performance. These reservoirs supply drinking water to Norfolk, VA. The third project will involve quantifying changes in sediment transport processes and shorelines in Norfolk and Virginia Beach in response to relative sea level rise. This project will mainly involve numerical modeling but we also envision some field work.
11/13/2018: Dr. Navid Tahvildari participated in the National Science Foundation’s Coastal Engineering Research Framework workshop. The goal of the workshop was to help set the agenda for critical coastal engineering research topics for the near and distant future and discuss plans required to achieve them.
09/26/2018: Dr. Navid Tahvildari attended University Cooperation for Atmospheric Research’s (UCAR) scoping session Coastline and People (CoPe). The sessions brought together researchers in natural and social sciences, engineering, and public health to discuss research needs on the interactions between natural processes, social systems, and the built environment, and imagine coastal research hubs that could facilitate such research. More information: https://coastlinesandpeople.org/
04/01/2018: EHG work is published in a paper in Marine Technology Society Journal’s special issue on coastal resiliency. It is focused on sea level rise effects on depth, duration, and extent of flooding in several flood-prone areas in Hampton Roads region of Virginia: Castrucci and Tahvildari (2018)
Dr. Tahvildari is a co-author in another paper in the same issue. The paper discusses the publicly available ocean, earth, and atmospheric observations in Hampton Roads region of Virginia and how they are and can be used in flood resilience planning. Our recent field work that is focused on wave attenuation by nature-based features is briefly discussed: Loftis et al. (2018).
01/23/2018: EHG is awarded the Multidisciplinary Research Seed Grant (MRSG) Award sponsored by ODU’s Batten College of Engineering and Technology. The project title is: The Role of Seagrasses in Mitigating Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Impacts on Coastal Infrastructure: Integration of Hydrodynamics, Biophysics, and Sediment Geochemistry. We will collaborate with Dr. Richard Zimmerman and Dr. David Burdige from ODU OAES to assess multi-faceted benefits of seagrasses for the coastal region in changing climate.
01/18/2018: Our research on wave dissipation by living shorelines is featured in ODU NEWS.
01/15/2018: Luca Castrucci graduated in December 2017 and joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a research associate. Congratulations Luca!
11/21/2017: Luca Castrucci successfully defended his MS thesis entitled: “VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL BRIDGES IN THE HAMPTON ROADS REGION OF VIRGINIA TO STORM SURGE FLOODING UNDER SEA LEVEL RISE”. Congratulations Luca!
11/17/2017: Dr. Navid Tahvildari visited the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. In his visit, hosted by Dr. Casey Dietrich, he presented a seminar entitled “Nonlinear Dynamics of Surface Waves in Dissipative Environments”, and met with the coastal engineering faculty (Drs. Dietrich, Ortiz, Edge, and Sciaudone) and graduate students in their groups.
6/15/2017: EHG is awarded a DOT grant through MATS UTC to improve flooding estimates in the Hampton Roads Region of Virginia, and assess flooding impacts on operations of emergency vehicles. In addition to ODU, the team includes researchers from University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. The grant was
6/15/2017: EHG is awarded a DOT grant through MATS UTC to improve flooding estimates in the Hampton Roads Region of Virginia, and assess flooding impacts on operations of emergency vehicles. In addition to ODU, the team includes researchers from University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
6/1/2017: Maura Boswell received the Virginia Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship. The award will support Maura’s research that involves field measurement and numerical modeling of wave dissipation by nature-based features. Congratulations Maura!
7/1/2016: EHG is awarded a grant from VDOT to study storm surge flooding and its impacts on the transportation infrastructure in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.