Rising Puget Sound sea levels to be discussed in Feb. 26 lecture at WWU

Washington State Department of Natural Resources geographer and Western Washington University alumnus Michael Grilliot will speak about rising sea levels in Puget Sound at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, in Communications Facility 125 on the WWU campus.

The event is free, open to the public and is part of the WWU Huxley College of the Environment Speaker Series.

Grilliot’s talk, “Rising Seas and Sandy Beach Transgressions: A Study in Northern Puget Sound,” is the fourth of five lectures this quarter in the ongoing Huxley Speaker Series. The goal of the series is to bring together the environmental studies and environmental science communities along with WWU and Bellingham community members to discuss matters of contemporary environmental concern in the region and the world.

In his lecture, Grilliot will discuss the potential effects of sea level rise on the physical profile of sandy beaches on San Juan Island, including transgression of the shoreline and backshore erosion. While similar work has been conducted on sandy beaches around the world, Grilliot’s work is the first modeling application of this type in northern Puget Sound. The model used by Grilliot, a variation of the Bruun model modified by Nicholls in 1998, takes into account wave height, elevation, depth and sea level rise along two-dimensional profiles. The results of Grilliot’s work will provide coastal managers and stakeholders with vital information as to how sea level rise may affect sandy beaches and could influence coastal planning, policy, and management, as well as identify future research targets.

Grilliot earned his master’s degree in Geography from WWU. He was awarded the Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellowship through Washington’s Sea Grant Program and has been working for the Department of Natural Resources since October of last year.

For more information on this presentation please contact David Rossiter, assistant professor of Environmental Studies within WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment, at (360) 650-3603 or david.rossiter@wwu.edu.

Huxley College's academic programs reflect a broad view of the physical, biological, social and cultural world. This innovative and interdisciplinary approach established Huxley College as a leader in the field nearly 40 years ago. Since then the College has continued to lead, earning international recognition for the quality of its programs, the expertise of its faculty and the knowledge of its graduates.