Vulnerability of coastal landscapes to SLR

I was fortunate to work with an interdisciplinary team of reseachers from NC State University and Duke University on a NSF funded project investigating the biophysical impacts of saltwater intrusion in low-gradient coastal ecosystems. I published 3 first authored manuscripts from my 2 years (2015-2017) as a postdoctoral research associate in Ryan Emanuel’s Group.

Rural Coastal regions are distinctly vulnerable to sea level rise because of their remoteness and poverty. To better plan for future sea level changes in Albemarle Pamlico Peninsula, a rural five county region in Eastern NC, I led a review paper to assess the social and environmental impacts of sea level rise and their dynamic feedbacks (Bhattachan et al., 2018). To account for the effect of human infrastructure on hydrological flow and saltwater intrusion, we developed a spatially explicit saltwater intrusion vulnerability index (SIVI) to compare the saltwater vulnerability with and without artificial drainages (Bhattachan et al., 2018). Finally, I collaborated with Matthew Jurjonas who was running a residential survey as part of his doctoral dissertation research. Using a subset from his results, we assessed the residents risk perceptions to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion in eastern North Carolina and its implications to adaptive capacity and decision-making (Bhattachan et al., 2019).

I hope to continue to work on interesting topics and issues related to biophysical and social impacts of sea level rise in coastal regions in the future.