Research

A major focus of my lab is developing accurate and scalable methods for mapping shoreline position from satellite imagery. Our work has demonstrated the potential of PlanetScope imagery and machine learning to identify the high-water line and evaluated the accuracy of Landsat water-index shorelines using contemporaneous GPS surveys of the intertidal zone, with an emphasis on understanding uncertainty and determining which remotely sensed shoreline indicators can be applied reliably across large areas. 

Using techniques derived from our methodological work, my lab examines how shorelines respond to both long-term climate variability and individual high-energy events. Using more than 9,000 kilometers of tide-corrected shoreline positions, we showed that shoreline change along Australia’s Cooloola Sand Mass is governed by different climate drivers depending on the phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. In a separate study, we used pre- and post-storm PlanetScope imagery to document erosion and accretion along nearly 200 kilometers of shoreline following Tropical Cyclone Oma and related those changes to a rapid shift in wave direction and longshore sediment transport. More recently, I collaborated on a regional assessment of extreme beach changes caused by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred across the Great Sandy Coast of Queensland, further examining how extreme storms reshape sandy coastal systems. 

My lab investigates how coastal dune fields preserve records of sea-level change, sediment supply, and past depositional environments. Collaborative work on K’gari, the world’s largest sand island, established the first chronology encompassing all of its major parabolic-dune units and showed that dune emplacement was closely associated with intermediate and high sea levels over at least three glacial cycles. Our recent ground-penetrating radar research at California’s Guadalupe–Nipomo Dunes examines subsurface stratigraphic architecture to reconstruct the paleodepositional environments and Quaternary evolution of the dunefield.  

My lab evaluates the reliability of satellite-derived flow velocities in temperate alpine environments. On the Juneau Icefield, we compared velocities derived from optical and radar satellite imagery with contemporaneous RTK-GNSS measurements and found that accuracy varies substantially with glacier surface conditions, position, and flow rate. Results were strongest in slow-moving areas and the ablation zone, where crevasses and supraglacial debris provide stable targets for image correlation, but deteriorated across snow-covered accumulation zones and faster-flowing ice.