Associate Professor Kristen Splinter

Associate Professor Kristen Splinter

Associate Professor

Ph.D.

2009

Geological Oceanography. Oregon State University, USA.

Dissertation: Development of 2D Models to Estimate Nearshore Bathymetry and Sediment Transport.

Certificate

2009

Marine Resource Management. Oregon State University, USA.

M.Sc.

2004

Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering. University of Florida, USA.

Thesis: Effects of Three-Dimensional Forcing on Alongshore Currents:  A Comparative Study. 

B.Sc. (Eng.)

2002

Civil Engineering, Environmental Option. 1st Class Honours. Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada.

Thesis: Developing Protocols For Clinker-based Wetland Cells Used for Removing Phosphorus From Wastewater.

Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering

Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Water Research Laboratory (WRL)

Dr. Kristen Splinter is a Associate Professor at the Water Research Laboratory within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Kristen holds a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Queen's University (Canada), Masters in Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering from University of Florida (USA); and a PhD in Geological Oceanography as well as a Certificate in Marine Resource Man...

Phone
(+61 2) 8071 9845
E-mail
k.splinter@unsw.edu.au
Location
UNSW Water Research Laboratory Manly Vale Campus

Current Grants

Splinter, Turner, Coco, Palmsten. DP200100134.  Quantifying the impact of infiltration on dune erosion under waves & surge. $370K

Turner, Lowe, Greenslade, Plant, Hansen, Splinter. LP170100161. An Australian storm wave damage and beach erosion Early Warning System. $505K

 

Past Successful Grants

Splinter, Turner. Delivering a beach erosion forecasting system. NSW Environmental Trust. 2017-2019. $144K

Turner, Middleton, Splinter, Reniers, Davidson, Blenkinsopp. Beach Erosion and Recovery: Quantifying the Hazard. ARC Discovery 2015 - 2017. $423K

Castelle, Marieu, Senechal, Ruessink, Idier,Bujan, Ferreira, Splinter (I am a collaborator on 1 part of this grant) Processus cross-shore et longshore combines en morphodynamique littorale (French) ASTRID 2014, Agence de la Reserche (France). 207K euros.

Splinter, Davidson, Blenkinsopp, Turner. Development of a new Coastal Engineering 2-D beach profile model for predicting future coastline response to changing waves and sea-level. UNSW Australia Faculty of Engineering Early Career Research Grant, $20K.

Turner, Middleton, Goodwin, Splinter, Hanslow, Coates. ECL Impacts to beaches. Office of Environment and Heritage NSW Adaptation Research Hub. $66K

Splinter. Development and Application of 2 semi-empirical coastal evolution models to predict coastal change at timescales of days to years along Australian and French wave-dominated coastlines. France-Australia Science Innovation Collaboration (FASIC) Program Early  Career Research Fellowship Australian Academy of Science. $5K.

(2019) Future Women Leaders Conference Award, Monash University

(2015) Kevin Stark Award (Engineers Australia)

(2012) WRL Excellence Award, UNSW Sydney

I study how our coastline (namely the beaches) erode and recover from changes in the size of waves, sediment supply, and water levels.

I develop simple numerical models based on broad-scale observations that can predict how beaches change due to changes in wave height and wave period.  Two of the models that I have developed are based on the equilibrium concept (like a spring)  that can predict the cross-shore movement of sandbars and the shoreline over timescales of days to years. 

I also study how beaches change due to storms and their subsequent recovery, having published a large body of work on dune erosion and beach recovery processes based on both field analysis and numerical modelling.

I use remote sensing in a lot of my work. This includes the Google Earth Engine and PlanetLabs for developing new methods of shoreline extraction (For example, check out CoastSat which was developed by PhD student Kilian Vos). I also have a long history is using video/optical remote sensing techniques to study the nearshore. You can check out our coastal imaging stations here: http://ci.wrl.unsw.edu.au/

Recently I have also been involved with research projects to examine the hydrodynamics (waves and water levels) over reefs during extreme (cyclone) conditions.  This work is particularly important in the context of rising sea levels and climate change, where Pacific Island Nations may become more vulnerable to these events due to reef submergence and degradation. 

Invited to Review: Funding bodies: Australian Research Council (ARC DECRA and LIEF schemes, Australia); National Science Foundation (NSF, USA); ISAAC Program (Netherlands).  

Invited to Review: Journals: Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR); Journal of Hydraulic Engineering; Continental Shelf Research; Coastal Engineering; Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering; Natural Hazards; Journal of Coastal Research; International Journal of Event Management Research; Applied Ocean Research; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment; IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment; Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Remote Sensing, Coasts and Ports Conference Series.

Editorial Boards: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.

Conference Organising Committee: ICCE (2020); Empowering Female Leadership in Marine Science Workshop (2019); Coasts and Ports (2017); Conference on Women in Engineering (2001)

Conference Session Organiser/Chair/Judge: AGU Fall Meeting Machine Learning in Earth Surface Processes (2018-present); Estuarine, coastal, and shelf science conference (2018); AGU Ocean Sciences (2016); AGU Fall Meeting Nearshore Processes (2010, 2012, 2014); International Coastal Symposium (2013); Coasts and Ports (2013)

Professional committees: Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering, Engineers Australia NSW Coastal, Ocean, and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP)

My Research Supervision

PhD:

Conti, S.  Examining the impacts of waves, water levels and moisture content on dune erosion.

Vos, K. Novel Remote Sensing Applications to Quantify and Understand Changing Coasts

Ibaceta, R. Understanding and predicting multi-temporal shoreline variability in the face of inter-decadal variability in waves and sea levels

Leeman, C. Novel Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Applications for Regional Storm Wave Runup Forecasting

Matheen, A.N. Developing a Coastal Erosion Hotspot Early Warning System

Kreller, A.M. (co-supervised with Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) Achieving Fair and Collective Adaptation to Sea-Level Rise

Li, R. Improving the design of hydraulic structures using LIDAR.

 

Honours/Masters Coursework Thesis students:

Doherty, Y. Near-Daily coastal monitoring with high-resolution PlanetScope Dove satellite imagery

Deng, W. Beach slope variability around the Australian coast from satellite remote imagery

Ul Hassan, W. Shoreline variability along the Pakistan coast from satellite remote imagery

Liu, C. Shoreline variability along the China coast from satellite remote imagery

 

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I have graduated 4 PhD students, 2 MPhil student and supervised over 30 ME and Honours students in their final year theses. 

My Teaching

I currently teach in the following courses.

CVEN 9640/9640d: Coastal Engineering

CVEN 2501: Principles of Water Engineering

CVEN 9620/9620d: Rivers, Channels, and Estuaries