Dr. Hamed Moftakhari from the University of Alabama

Title: Multi-hazard Risk Assessment in Coastal Regions

Abstract

Coastal systems around the United States are densely populated regions with rich ecosystem diversity and economic resources. Understanding the interaction between oceanic and hydroclimatic forcing over the coastal systems is of paramount importance, but still challenging, for hazard prediction, infrastructure resilience, and sustainable water resources management. In this presentation, we discuss the challenges we face in the appropriate characterization of extreme and non-extreme (e.g. nuisance flooding) coastal hazards. The advanced probabilistic tools useful for appropriate characterization of such hazards and dealing with the aforementioned difficulties will also be discussed.

Bio

Dr. Moftakhari is an assistant professor at the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering and is affiliated with the Center for Complex Hydro-systems research at the University of Alabama (UA). His research is in the area of coastal hydrology, and involves multi-hazard risk analysis, and integrated coastal/estuarine hydrodynamic modeling. He explores how the interaction between inland hydrologic processes and coastal ocean processes would affect resources such as food, energy, and water in the low-lying coastal regions, and how the response of affected communities would mitigate/intensify the impacts. His research is mainly focused on two categories of processes: i) extreme events with multiple underlying drivers, and ii) minor repetitive events that their chronic impacts would pose considerable cumulative costs over time. Dr. Moftakhari holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Portland State University (2015), an MSc in Civil Engineering-Water Resources from Sharif University of Technology (2010), and a BSc in Civil Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology (2007). Prior to joining UA, Dr. Moftakhari was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Irvine.