WILMINGTON, N.C. — Hurricanes are bringing greater threats to our coast than in previous decades, and that includes the erosion of N.C. beaches.
But a unique program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is working to find solutions to these growing problems.
UNCW offers the only bachelor's degree of coastal engineering in the country.
“We focus really on this realm between when the waves start to feel the bottom, when we start to see them change their shape, all the way up to how they impact, they break at the shoreline,” Joe Long, the director of the program, said.
Students like rising senior Cory Toburen say there's a growing need to study this type of engineering. He pointed to the impacts of climate change on along the coast, “especially with the increasing sea level rise that plays a big part in it.”
Hurricanes and sea level rise are increasing the rate of erosion of beaches in North Carolina and other states too.
Toburen is spending the summer, along with other students, researching better ways to protect beaches through re-nourishment projects.
The university recently debuted a new tool that will help with that type of research. An 80-foot-long, 5-foot-wide wave flume was installed in the coastal engineering building. It's large enough to hold water to fill 160 bathtubs.
According to Long, the new wave flume lab is the only one with its capabilities in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.
“We can test new and innovative things that might help us to maybe dissipate storm surge or dissipate wave energy," he said, adding, “We need to find new, more sustainable ways to live on the coastline.”
