Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant welcomes new coastal engineering and community resilience specialist

Posted February 4th, 2025 in Featured, News, Program
Sarah Peterson

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) welcomes Sarah Peterson as the program’s new coastal engineering and community resilience specialist. Peterson will develop a coastal resilience program along the southern Lake Michigan shoreline.

“Coastal hazards, such as meter-scale water level fluctuations in the Great Lakes, can lead to significant coastal geomorphic change and have major impacts on nearby communities, ecosystems, infrastructure and local economies,” Peterson said. “At IISG, I am excited to work alongside a skilled and passionate team of scientists, researchers, educators and specialists to help southern Lake Michigan coastal communities build resilience.”

The new coastal resilience program aims to enhance coastal hazard preparedness and resilience in communities along the Indiana and Illinois shores of Lake Michigan through collaboration, applied research, technical guidance, education and outreach.

Peterson earned both a Bachelor of Science and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus on coastal geomorphic change. Her doctoral research examined the effects of water level fluctuations on coastal environments and shoreline change near the water’s edge.

While at UW-Madison, Peterson developed technical skills using ArcGIS to create spatial tools for analyzing coastal geomorphic change, mapping potential and identifying spatial and temporal changes in coastal property values in Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and adjacent estuaries. She also used FUNWAVE-TVD to model wave current circulation patterns and interaction with groin structures at Sheridan Park, on the Wisconsin coast of Lake Michigan.

She will be based at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station in Chesterton, Indiana.

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Register for the webinar at InvasiveCrayfish.org/events1 Or the link in bio.

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Open post by ilinseagrant with ID 18098041069660813
Join the Invasive Crayfish Collaborative for an exciting webinar featuring Dr. Chris Taylor from the Illinois Natural History Survey who will provide an overview of midwestern crayfish habitat requirements, feeding, reproductive biology, and life-history.Crayfishes in the Midwest occupy almost every type of aquatic and semi-aquatic habitat in the region. They function as critically important components of those ecosystems and in many cases represent a majority of invertebrate biomass. As “keystone” species, understanding their biology and roles in ecosystems is critically important. Register for the webinar at InvasiveCrayfish.org/events1 Or the link in bio.