New Coastal Science Assistantship Program Recipients Announced
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) continues its funding for the Coastal Science Assistantship Program (CSAP). It provides up to three years of support to Master of Science students who are enrolled full-time at Louisiana colleges or universities and who are involved in science or engineering research relevant to Louisiana coastal protection and restoration efforts. This both exposes students to CPRA activities and provides a potential avenue for recruitment of new CPRA personnel.
The Louisiana Sea Grant College Program (LSG) administers these assistantships, which are available to all faculty pursuing appropriate coastal restoration-related research so they may recruit outstanding graduate students. Up to four new students will be funded each academic year, based on evaluations of applications submitted by faculty members. The annual award is $25,000 per student.
The newest recipients are:
Jon Bridgeman
Tulane University, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Pursuing a Master of Science in Earth and Environmental Sciences (Coastal Geoscience)
Major professor: Torbjörn Törnqvist
Understanding Mississippi Delta Subsidence by Integrating Continuous Coring with Geodetic Methods
Land-surface subsidence is a major contributor to the rapid rate of land loss in the Mississippi Delta. This project will measure and determine the major contributors of Holocene (the epoch of geological time from about 10,000 years ago to the present) subsidence in the Mississippi River Delta through the examination of a new, continuous, 40-meter long, 5-inch diameter core taken from a drill site near the proposed mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. The core will capture the entire Holocene succession and will include geotechnical measurements as well. The new core will enable researchers to develop a direct connection between geodetic measurements of present-day subsidence rates and the nature of underlying strata. After graduation, Bridgeman plans to work in coastal and wetland restoration.
Brian Harris
Louisiana State University, Department of Civil Engineering
Pursuing a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering
Major professor: Navid H. Jafari
Predicting Subsurface Settlement of Marsh Creation Projects and Flood Protection Infrastructure in Coastal Louisiana
Marsh creation projects build land, but the marsh fill will erode and settle over time. A major contributor of this settlement is the consolidation of foundation soils caused by loading exerted by dredged material or levee embankments. Because a limited number of laboratory tests are performed to evaluate the compressibility and permeability characteristics of foundation layers, significant uncertainties exist in the parameters over a large spatial expanse. As the next-generation marsh creation projects are expected to increase in size from hundreds of acres to thousands of acres, this uncertainty will challenge CPRA’s ability to construct successful restoration projects. To address this problem, Harris seeks to predict the subsurface settlement of marsh creation projects and flood protection infrastructure in coastal Louisiana. Following this, he plans to become a researcher in wetland restoration.
Benjamin Beasley
University of New Orleans, Department of Earth and Environmental Science and the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences
Pursuing a Master of Science in Coastal Geology
Major professor: Ioannis Y. Georgiou
Coupled Barrier Island and Shoreface Dynamics: A Comprehensive Understanding of Coast-wide Response to Transgression
Barrier islands and tidal inlet systems along the Mississippi River Delta Plain are undergoing rapid morphological change due to shoreface retreat and increasing bay tidal prism, driven by high rates of relative seal-level rise and interior wetland loss. Protection and restoration of barrier habitats, sea grass beds and marshes are common. The student selected for this project will analyze shoreline, seafloor, wave and sediment data and corroborate the role of the shoreface in driving barrier island trajectory at both the regional and local scales. This analysis will provide additional information on barrier dynamics that will aid in making decisions for restoration, help identify regional trends in coastal dynamics, and prioritize future locations for restoration.
To be named
University of New Orleans, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Pursuing a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a concentration in Geotechnical Engineering and Coastal Sciences
Major professor: Malay Ghose-Hajra
Development of a Comprehensive Engineering Design Tool to Predict and Evaluate Long-term Performance of Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Projects
The goals of this research are to achieve improved outcomes, reduced time and lower costs for marsh creation fill projects. The student selected for this assistantship will help develop a comprehensive engineering design tool to predict and evaluate long-term performance of Louisiana coastal restoration and protection projects. This will be achieved in five steps: 1. Compile historical geotechnical data and perform Data Gap Analyses of the different soil parameters commonly utilized in the design of coastal restoration and protection projects, 2. Develop a GIS-based database of foundation soil and dredged sediments for use by coastal and geotechnical engineers, 3. Perform laboratory testing on new coastal sediments, 4. Develop a geotechnical design tool, and 5. Develop a geotechnical instrumentation plan for current and future marsh creation projects.