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Tuesday, February 6, 2018. 12:00 PM. Webinar: The Value of Coastal Wetlands in Reducing Flood Losses from Storms: Case-studies from the US Atlantic Coastline and Elsewhere. Siddharth Narayan, UC-Santa Cruz. Sponsored by NOAA National Ocean Service. More information here.

Abstract: There is increasing interest these days around natural and nature-based features, such as coastal wetlands, for reducing risk.This interest spans not just the public sector (NOAA, US Army Corps of Engineers) but also the private sector (risk financing, engineering industries). A corpus of work over the last few decades shows that coastal wetlands can and do help reduce flood damages. Translating this knowledge into practical, on-the-ground measures for conservation and risk management, requires a multi-pronged effort by conservationists, engineers and academia. Key to this effort is using industry-standard tools that allow engineers and risk financers to readily measure, finance and, ultimately, implement these ‘novel’ features. In this seminar Sid will discuss some of his recent work on measuring the value of coastal wetlands for reducing flood losses from storms, done in close partnership with private insurance, financial, and academic institutions. He will explore some of the main challenges and opportunities that arise out of this work for conservation and risk reduction practice. About the Speaker: Dr. Siddharth Narayan is a coastal engineer, currently working as a research scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz. Sid is from Chennai in South India, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He subsequently completed a master’s in Coastal Engineering at TU Delft in The Netherlands, and a PhD in coastal flood risk assessments at the University of Southampton in the UK. For the past four years, Sid’s research, together with Michael Beck of The Nature Conservancy, have focused on assessments, approaches and tools to understand how, where and when conserving ecosystems can benefit people and nature. At present, he works with a team of ecologists, coastal engineers and risk modelers to assess the role and value of ecosystems for coastal risk reduction and resilience.