Category: News

For the 8th UF Water Institute Symposium, the CCS has organized a program of sessions and panels that explore what the future of coastal water quality monitoring, modeling, management, and policy should/could look like from a technological, scientific and engineering perspective, as well as through a management and policy lens.

As part of the Fall 2021 Coastal Policy Lab, a partnership between Florida Sea Grant, the University of Florida Conservation Clinic at the Levin College of Law and the CCS in the College of Engineering, faculty and students investigated the potential to mitigate the impacts of repetitive maintenance dredging by using more efficient channel designs.

In partnership with the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Program (CHNEP), CCS will analyze water quality trends and develop a web-based data visualization dashboard for the CHNEP Water Atlas. The public-facing Shiny dashboard will allow users to explore water quality changes within the harbor and its watershed over time, highlighting locations where conditions have substantially […]

Hithaishi will be working alongside Dr. Maitane Olabarrieta and CCS-affiliated colleagues to understand how flow and nutrients from Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River Watershed will impact the coastal water quality and the generation of harmful algal blooms.

This project, funded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature initiative, will advance understanding of how and why coastal landforms, including dunes, salt marshes, and oyster reefs, are evolving through innovative coastal sensing, modeling, and experimental research. A team of six Principal Investigators (PIs) from Civil and Coastal Engineering (Professor Alex Sheremet, […]

Along with Dr. David Kaplan and a team of CCS-affiliated scientists, Enrique is investigating how water and nutrients from Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River Watershed impact coastal water quality resulting in frequent harmful algal blooms.

Bills to authorize mitigation banking for seagrass and other marine resources on sovereign submerged lands (SSL) have been introduced in the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate for consideration in the 2022 legislative session.

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Joseph Morton to the Center for Coastal Solutions as a postdoctoral research fellow on an interdisciplinary project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative. Along with Center Director Christine Angelini, a team of six PIs from the departments of Civil and Coastal Engineering (CCS), […]

The inaugural semester of the CCS Coastal Policy Lab came to close in early December with a field trip to Sanibel Island to present the results of the students’ interdisciplinary projects. The Coastal Policy Lab (CPL) is a student-centered experiential learning collaboration between the University of Florida Colleges of Law and Engineering, and Florida Sea […]

CCS Associate Director Dr. David Kaplan, and a team of CCS-affiliated scientists and engineers from UF, the USF, NCSU, and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation have received $2.3 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study how water and nutrients flowing from Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River watershed interact with tides, currents, and waves at the coast to affect coastal water quality.

Rule Development in the DEP Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, by Matthew DePaolis, Coastal Policy Analyst Fellow, Center for Coastal Solutions / UF Law Conservation Clinic & Florida Sea Grant Legal Program

A post-doctoral associate fellowship and six graduate student research assistantships are available starting in August 2022 at the University of Florida for an interdisciplinary project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature initiative, based out in the UF Center for Coastal Solutions. A team of six PIs from the departments of […]

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation has a new article out on the inaugural Coastal Policy Lab course. Full text is provided below and and you can find the original SCCF article here. As part of SCCF’s new memorandum of understanding with the University of Florida (UF) Center for Coastal Solutions, an inaugural fall semester course called […]

Salt marsh resilience compromised by crabs along tidal creek edges A long-term study in Elkhorn Slough revealed the impact of superabundant crabs on salt marsh vegetation and the vulnerability of tidal creek banks to erosion     Excerpt from press release by Tim Stephens / UC Santa Cruz News, August 09, 2021: Coastal marshes are […]

CCS Director Dr. Christine Angelini co-authored a recently published paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology titled Life cycle informed restoration: Engineering settlement substrate material characteristics and structural complexity for reef formation. The study defines and experimentally tests ‘life cycle informed restoration’, a restoration concept that focuses on overcoming multiple bottlenecks throughout the target species’ […]

A new fact sheet, Massive influxes of Pelagic Sargassum in the Wider Caribbean Region, describes the science, law and policy, and management challenges of Sargassum, a macroalgae that has become established and invasive in the Caribbean and parts of the Gulf, including Florida, with significant economic and social costs. The project was facilitated by the […]

Florida Sea Grant’s Nature Coast Regional Specialized Agent Dr. Savanna Barry and affiliate Dr. Mark Clark (UF IFAS, Soil and Water Science) are spearheading a project in the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve on Florida’s Nature Coast to employ drone technology to map and measure seagrass scarring in the Preserve.

The University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions is collaborating with the GTM Research Reserve, City of St. Augustine, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Wood Engineering on a National Fish and Wildlife Federation grant. The project “Designing Innovative Saltmarsh Restoration and Protecting Coastal Community Infrastructure” will assess the potential of saltmarsh resilience implementation techniques […]

This analysis briefly describes the amendments to boating law introduced by the bills SB 1946 and 1086 and provides some context. By Tom Ankersen and Colson Douglas.

In a new paper in the Journal of Environmental Management, CCS affiliates Drs. John Jaeger, Mark Clark, Director Christine Angelini, and partners from across sectors in the entire region identify the greatest contemporary threats to coastal wetlands and oyster reefs across the southeastern United States (Mississippi to North Carolina), by summarizing recent population growth and […]

Dr. Zhe Jiang is joining UF in August of 2021 as an Assistant Professor in Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), and affiliated with the Center for Coastal Solutions as part of the cluster hire for Artificial Intelligence in Coastal Systems. His broad research areas include artificial intelligence, data mining, and machine learning, with […]

On June 24, 2021, Dr. Todd S. Bridges, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Senior Research Scientist & National Lead of Engineering With Nature® gave testimony to the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works during a hearing entitled “The Role of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Water Resources Projects.” The hearing was devoted […]

State Policy Update by Thomas T. Ankersen, University of Florida College of Law & Florida Sea Grant Restoration aquaculture is poised by play a significant role in support of nature-based resiliency and in mediating water quality hazards.  Recognizing this potential, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Aquaculture (FDACS) has amended Florida […]

CCS’s summer student interns, Savannah Peltrau (B.S., Environmental Sciences) and Colson Douglas (J.D. Candidate, Law) are teaming up to support a project with Florida Sea Grant under a contract with the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) to update the District’s five year strategic plan.