Research

My research focuses on understanding earth surface processes, specifically fluvial processes, and how these processes shape our landscape, both past and future. A significant portion of the world's population lives within a short distance of fresh water, and damage from flooding costs Americans over a billion dollars each year. Understanding and reconstructing flooding and streamflow past our instrumental and historical records can help us to narrow uncertainty in flood prediction models and better plan infrastructure. I employ a variety of proxies and models to interpret landscape and fluvial changes through the late Holocene; most of my work focuses on identifying and isolating flood sediment alongside climate and hydraulic/hydrologic models to holistically understand dynamics of past flood events.

Slackwater Deposits

Slackwater deposits are archives of past flooding. These deposits can be used in a variety of fluvial environments to record ancient floods and used to reconstruct flood height or magnitude. I use slackwater from the Ohio River Valley to understand and validate hydraulic models and narrow uncertainty on modern flood frequency analyses.

Maps/Lidar

I use a variety of proxies and geomorphic relationships to understand paleofloods and paleodischarge. Historical maps are an important tool in this research, they contain critical information about past geomorphic processes. In addition, I employ LiDAR imagery and remotely sensed datasets to understand the morphological characteristics of river systems and their temporal evolution.

Oxbow Lakes

Oxbow lake sediments contain information about the history of the floodplain including critical information about past floods, sedimentation rate changes, and local climate changes. I use sediment cores from oxbow lakes along the Mississippi River to reconstruct flooding, flow, river engineering, and sedimentation rate for the late Holocene.

Simulations & observations of sedimentation

For my postdoc research, I monitor and model sedimentation in a series of floodplain lakes around the Merrimack River in Concord, NH to simulate sedimentation and deposition in the area and constrain flood hazard. In this work, I use HOBO water loggers and sediment traps to monitor sedimentation and flooding and then create hydraulic model simulations of the area. As floodplain geometries change, these models (HEC-RAS) will be able to better predict sedimentation patterns and flood hazard on the river under changing river geometries. For this project, we also take sediment cores from oxbow lakes off of the river and use them to reconstruct past flooding in the area.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse