Resistance and Resilience: How Weather Disturbances Impact the Louisiana and Texas Coast

NASA has awarded LSU a new 3-year, $1.4 million grant to embark on gaining a more holistic view of the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico, in part by deploying a novel computer modeling approach, called coupled modeling.

“By applying and further developing the state-of-the-art compound flooding model, this project will significantly boost our understanding of the land-ocean interaction during extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods. The knowledge and technology gained from this project will benefit not only coastal Louisiana and Texas but also are transferable to other locations that are prone to coastal natural disasters,” said Principal Investigator Z. George Xue, who is an associate professor in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences.

LSU aims to paint the fullest picture yet of how coastal wetlands and estuaries in the western Gulf of Mexico are responding to the pressure of increasing severe, transient disturbances, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and even inland flooding. 

Learn more about coastal modeling