CCS Monthly Forum

Abstract: A new study finds that decade-to-decade variations in daily maximum water levels at several coastal cities align with lunar standstills (lunistices). Additionally, lunar standstills, combined with solar forcing, explain over 85% of the variability in several key climate indices. These findings can be extended to water quality threats such as saltwater intrusion, highlighting a strong link between astronomical forcing and environmental change.

Bio: Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, Ph.D., is a professor in the Civil and Coastal Engineering Department. During his career, he has been awarded the prestigious CAREER award by the National Science Foundation, as well as numerous research and visiting fellowships from: the Fulbright Foundation, Mexican Academy of Sciences, University of Western Australia, Utrecht University, Chilean Science and Technology Council, University of Bordeaux, Kyushu University, University of Pernambuco, Brazil, Universities of Padua and Genoa in Italy. He is an author of 240+ peer-reviewed publications in international journals. His research on coastal hydrodynamics is recognized worldwide, specifically in the areas of morphologic effects on estuarine and coastal circulation, and on wind-driven, tidally driven and density-driven circulation.  An estuary of southern Chile, off Aysen fjord, was named in his honor (‘Estero Arnoldo’).  In 2012, he became one of the <100 worldwide Corresponding Members of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is Chief Editor of Continental Shelf Research, and Associate Editor of Estuaries and Coasts, and Journal of Oceanography, and has published a textbook on estuarine hydrodynamics.

Abstract: We performed long-term trend analysis in the Lower St. John’s River and discovered the primary water quality challenges in Jacksonville point to bacterial contamination. The data shows that surface water bacteria in the region is positively correlated with urban land use, implicating wastewater systems as potential causes. Current/future work is focused on building a machine learning model to predict E. coli concentrations from environmental and infrastructure data.

Bio: Ron Fick, Ph.D., CCS associate research scientist, leverages remotely sensed data to better understand water quality conditions and mitigate issues like red tide. He co-developed the septic to sewer conversion optimizer tool, which supports managers in saving time and money to convert from septic to sewer systems, and is an avid Gators fan.