HRI Seminar Series - Dr. Jiabi Du

"Modeling Texas Coastal Waters: Challenges and Advances"

JIABI DU
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY AT GALVESTON

The structure and complexity of biogenic habitats can strongly influence the composition of marine faunal communities and contribute to their roles as nursery areas. It is necessary to understand how nursery areas are In the context of changing climate and extreme weather events, there's a growing need for a robust numerical model to support efficient forecasting and coastal resource management. When it comes to modeling Texas coastal waters, several challenges arise, including sharp bathymetry features like narrow ship channels, complex interactions between neighboring bays, influences from remote major rivers like the Mississippi-Atchafalaya Rivers, and hydrological gradient along the coast. In this presentation, we will explore these challenges and showcase solutions using the cutting-edge SCHISM numerical modeling system. 

Dr. Jiabi Du earned his Bachelor and Master degrees from Nanjing University in 2010 and 2012. He completed his Ph.D. in physical oceanography at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary in 2017. Following this, he held postdoctoral positions at TAMUG and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In January, he joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor. By combining observation data and high-resolution numerical model, his research tries to establish the linkage between changing physical transport processes and emerging environmental issues. He is especially interested in the resilience of coastal systems to extreme weather events and changing climate.