Conferences

The Coast and Estuaries Research Group was delighted to have the National Coast to Coast Conference AND the NSW Coastal Conference together in Newcastle and CERG members made contributions to many aspects of what was a very successful and enjoyable week. Mike Kinsela and Hannah Power were part of the 2023 joint conference organising committe and 8 members of the CERG team contributed presentations at the conference. Hannah kicked things off by bringing the audience into her analysis in the opening keynote "Coasts for the future: the challenges, the opportunities, and the people". Maddy Broadfoot, Annette Burke, Rosey Hart and Kendall Mollison presented their latest research in talk sessions, while the University of Newcastle's College of Engineering, Science and Environment sponsored the poster sessions, where new work from Elise Buller, Chloe Fitzpatrick, Mike Kinsela and Hannah Power was showcased in both lightning talks and print posters. Mike prepared and led a full-day field trip with Paul Donaldson (NSW Environment) on the geomorphology and sediments of the region, and they were pleased to return a full complement of day trippers with big smiles and new insights on the geological aspects of coastal change.

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CERG presentations:

Submarine landslides in southeast Australia, a case study: the Brooms Head Complex, Australia (Elise Buller) [poster]

Morphological variation in estuaries, a case study of Moonee Creek, NSW (Maddy Broadfoot)

Looking beneath the waves: Mapping ebbtidal deltas using satellite imagery (Annette Burke)

The morphology of drowned palaeoshoreline features on the east Australian continental shelf (Chloe Fitzpatrick) [poster]

Runup distributions and tidal Influence on the accuracy of empirical runup estimates (Rosey Hart)

Sedimentary features and transport pathways on the southeast Australian shoreface-inner continental shelf (Mike Kinsela) [poster]

Coastal geomorphology and sediments of the Newcastle to Port Stephens region (Mike Kinsela) [field trip]

High resolution submarine landslide generated tsunami modelling for the Gold Coast (Kendall Mollison)

Coasts for the future: the challenges, the opportunities, and the people (Hannah Power) [keynote]

Extreme water levels in estuaries: the influence of estuary type (Hannah Power) [poster]

A large contingent of the Coasts and Estuaries Research Group were part of the organising committee and attended the Sydney Central Hub of the Fourth Australasian Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference 2023. Ruby Hammond was the co-chair with Dr Tom Doyle and Maddy Broadfoot, Elise Buller, Cristina Viola, and Hannah Power were part of the 2023 Organising Committee that delivered a fantastic conference! Maddy Broadfoot led the first Express Course "Drones for Coastal Research and Management" and shared many learnings from her PhD work using drones to map shallow estuaries. Hannah gave a lightning presentation titled "The next generation of coastal scientists and engineers: where to next?” and Kate Tunstill attracted the most audience questions of all for her contribution "Determining inundation regime of ICOLLs to understand conservation of Litoria aurea". Mike Kinsela supported the CERG team and thoroughly enjoyed the strong program of next-gen coastal research. The CERG team is very excited to see this conference series really take off and we look forward to being a part of it in future years! https://www.ausycsec.com.au

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CERG presentations:

Drones for Coastal Research and Management (Maddy Broadfoot) [express course]

The next generation of coastal scientists and engineers: where to next? (Hannah Power)

Determining inundation regime of ICOLLs to understand conservation of Litoria aurea (Kate Tunstill)

The Australasian Coasts and Ports Conference was back in person on the Sunshine Coast for 2023. Four members of the Coasts and Estuaries Research Group presented at the conference. Cristina Viola spoke in the first of the parallel sessions, presenting her final chapter of her PhD: "Characterising Continental Shelf Waves and Their Drivers for the NSW coast, Australia". Elise Buller talked about one component of her Honours thesis, "Assessing the Tsunamigenic Potential of a Submarine Landslide Offshore Brooms Head, Australia", Mike Kinsela spoke on "Sedimentary features and sediment transport pathways on the southeast Australian shoreface-inner continental shelf", and Hannah Power talked about "Extreme sea levels under climate change: current knowledge, challenges, and approaches". Hannah also spoke at the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Function and was one of the panel members in the follow-up panel discussion. We enjoyed catching up with our Australasian colleagues and soaking up some Queensland winter sunshine! 

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CERG presentations:

Assessing the tsunamigenic potential of a submarine landslide offshore Brooms Head, Australia (Elise Buller)

Sedimentary features and sediment transport pathways on the southeast Australian shoreface-inner continental shelf (Mike Kinsela)

Extreme sea levels under climate change: current knowledge, challenges and approaches (Hannah Power)

Women in coastal: a privilege check and a status update (Hannah Power) [WiCGE panel session]

Characterising continental shelf waves and their drivers for the NSW coast, Australia (Cristina Viola)

Four members of the Coasts and Estuaries Research Group attended Coastal Sediments 2023, the 10th Conference in the Coastal Sediments Series, in New Orleans, USA, in April 2023. Hannah Power gave the second keynote presentation for the conference, titled "Surf, swash, and science: From breaking waves to breaking down barriers” (you can find her slides here). Mike Kinsela won the first-ever Coastal Achievement Award for his contribution to the development of CoastSnap - the global citizen science project capturing coastline change! Mike also presented a paper titled "Divergent shoreline behaviour and offshore sediment deposits on adjacent coasts in Southeast Australia", Maddy Broadfoot presented her work on "Change detection of shallow water estuarine inlet morphology using remote sensing technologies", and Annette Burke presented on "Multidecadal mapping of tidal inlet morphodynamics using analysis ready data to generate satellite derived bathymetries". The CERG team had an excellent time catching up with international colleagues and friends and enjoying the jazz delights of New Orleans.

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CERG presentations:

Change detection of shallow water estuarine inlet morphology using remote sensing technologies (Maddy Broadfoot)

Multidecadal mapping of tidal inlet morphodynamics using analysis ready data for satellite derived bathymetries (Annette Burke)

Divergent shoreline behaviour and offshore sediment deposits on adjacent coasts in Southeast Australia (Mike Kinsela)

Surf, swash, and science: From breaking waves to breaking down barriers (Hannah Power) [keynote]

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CERG awards:

Coastal Achievement Award: For the Development of CoastSnap Community Beach Monitoring (Mitchell Harley & Mike Kinsela)

The International Conference on Coastal Engineering returned to Australia for the first time since Sydney 2000 and the Coasts and Estuaries Research Group delivered a pentathlon presentation relay showcasing some of our current investigations into hydrodynamic processes and the morphodynamics of coastal evolution. Elise Buller took the first event, presenting tsunami wave modelling from her undergraduate research project. Hannah Power and Mike Kinsela brought the race into estuaries with works on hydrodyamic estuary classification and the evolution of an estuarine barrier-spit, respectively. Rosey Hart powered out into the waves with new observations and analysis of surf zone bore-bore capture, and Maddy Broadfoot hit the home-straight back into sheltered waters, comparing and contrasting the morphodynamics of two NSW estuaries. The CERG team finished up somewhat exhausted by very satisfied with their showing across the disciplines.

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CERG presentations:

Morphodynamics of two riverine estuaries in New South Wales (Maddy Broadfoot)

3D numerical modelling of 5 submarine landslide scenarios in Perth Canyon, Australia to assess tsunamigenic hazard (Elise Buller)

Investigations of bore-bore capture on a macrotidal beach (Rosey Hart)

Migration and welding of an estuarine barrier spit driven by delta evolution and storms (Mike Kinsela)

Hydrodynamic classification of estuaries: challenges and alternative approaches (Hannah Power)