AUSTRALIAN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION (AAA)
SPEAKER SERIES
Date & Venue: Thursday 04 February 2016, 18h00
ELT 2 (Prof Sir Edouard Lim Fat Engineering Tower) University of Mauritius, Reduit
‘Vulnerability of Coral Reef Coasts to Climate Change: Implication for the Blue
Economy’
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Professor Ryan Lowe
UWA Oceans Institute and School of Earth and Environment
The University of Western Australia
ABSTRACT
Coastal reef systems, including both coral and rocky reefs, occupy much of the world’s coastline, and due to their
close proximity to shore (i.e., within a few kilometres) are generally thought to provide natural coastal defence
against extreme waves and storm impacts. In Australia alone, recent estimates indicate that at least half of the
coastline is fringed by submerged reefs, which are distributed throughout both tropical and temperate regions.
These reefs are thought to play a major role in regulating the morphology of adjacent beaches and ultimately their
vulnerability to coastal hazards. Nevertheless, despite the abundance of coastal reefs worldwide, decades of
nearshore research has focused predominantly on the dynamics of open-coast sandy beaches (those not fringed
by reefs), making this literature the foundation for most modern coastal engineering models that are used to
forecast coastal hazards (e.g., erosion and inundation).
BIOGRAPHY
Ryan Lowe is a Professor at the University of Western Australia within the UWA Oceans Institute and School of
Earth and Environment. He received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2005 from Stanford
University. After completing a postdoctoral research and lecturing position at Stanford, he commenced a research
and teaching position at UWA in 2007. Lowe’s research involves the study of how oceanic and atmospheric
forcing drives the circulation and distribution of wave energy within a broad range of coastal systems (e.g., coral
reefs, rocky coastlines and beaches). In 2012, Lowe received a prestigious five-year Australian Research Council
(ARC) Future Fellowship to further expand his research on nearshore processes along Western Australia’s
extensive (~20,000 km) coastline, ranging from the strongly wave-forced systems in the southwest to the
macrotidal systems in the northwest. In 2014 Lowe commenced as a Chief Investigator for the renewed 7-year,
$28 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies to lead a theme on coral reef and tropical nearshore
oceanography based at UWA.
For further information: aaamauritius@gmail.com