W3 Seminar: Applying ecohydraulics research to the robust design of natural infrastructure

Details

Speaker: Kelly Kibler, Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida

Abstract: Features of aquatic ecosystems such as wetlands, reefs, barrier islands and dunes function as natural infrastructure to reduce risk of damage and loss related to erosion and flood hazards. Community interest to restore functionality to degraded ecosystems has moved beyond traditional restoration to include integration of nature-based features into built infrastructure as an emerging climate adaptation strategy. However, robust design of natural infrastructure is limited by gaps in scientific knowledge regarding key properties of living materials and critical processes that sustain living infrastructure. In this seminar, results of hydrodynamic and sediment transport observations within natural, restored, and engineered biological canopies are discussed with reference to natural infrastructure design applications.

Bio: Dr. Kelly Kibler is an Associate Professor of Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida. She is faculty of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research and a Faculty Fellow of UCF’s Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity. Dr. Kibler obtained her Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Oregon State University and worked with the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) before joining UCF faculty. Dr. Kibler’s Ecohydraulics Laboratory conducts interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of water resources engineering and aquatic ecology. Targeting coupled biological and physical variables in river and estuarine systems, the UCF Ecohydraulics Lab advances basic scientific knowledge in flow-biota interaction and its influence to hydrodynamics and sediment transport. Dr. Kibler’s research findings are applied to the design of natural infrastructure used to protect communities from climatic hazards, such as erosion and flooding.