Regional Coastal Ocean Systems: Dynamical States and Design Constraints 

ABSTRACT 

The impact of the ocean on society is most manifest in coastal regions; for example, potable water production from seawater (i.e., seawater desalination), seafood production from marine fisheries and mariculture, ports and waterways, and municipal and industrial waste disposal. The key challenge now, given the expected change in variability in the global ocean and atmosphere, is how to design or redesign these natural-built infrastructures to be resilient, environmentally sustainable, and to support established and future population centers. In this talk I will argue that, because of rapid advancement in large-scale numerical modeling and observation of the natural environment, we are at a very opportune moment to determine the stability of coastal ocean systems. The character of this stability shows whether a coastal ocean region will remain in a dynamical state for a time or whether it will change more rapidly and be less predictable. I will build my arguments using the coupled atmosphere-ocean dynamics of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, which is the seawater source and brine sink for about fifty per cent of the world’s seawater desalination capacity. I will show how my work combined high-resolution numerical simulations and observations to reveal important design constraints for sustainable seawater desalination in this Gulf. I will also discuss works in other coastal regions aimed at understanding low and high frequency variability of coastal ocean seawater properties. 

Biosketch: Dr Ibrahim received his undergraduate degree in mathematics before transitioning to hydrology for his graduate studies. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2017 in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

This seminar is co-organized by the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering and the School of the Environment. For additional information, please contact Teresa Miniaci at: Teresa.miniaci@utoronto.ca.