The 2020–21 AEG/GSA Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer

Before joining Texas Central, Dr. Aguilar served as a senior vice president at the global engineering company CH2M Hill, where he sat on its management committee and was chairman of the CCPP Project Consortium for the Ichthys LNG Facility. He formerly was president of BrightSource Construction Management and senior vice Keynote Speaker president at BrightSource Carlos Aguilar Energy, a developer of largescale solar thermal power plants. Dr. Aguilar led the development, engineering, procurement, and construction of the company’s portfolio of projects, including the development and construction of Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the largest solar thermal plant in the world.

Dr. Aguilar spent twelve years with Bechtel Corp., where he held several leadership roles. His successes included overseeing the initial financing of the first five-year program for the $30 billion, 30-year project to upgrade the London Underground’s Jubilee, Piccadilly, and Northern Lines.

Dr. Aguilar received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering, mechanical engineering and materials science from Duke University, a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in technological economics from the University of Stirling in Scotland.

In addition to his role at Texas Central, Dr. Aguilar maintains a strong personal interest in sustainable development for the world’s poorest people, and serves on the board of Counterpart International, a global development organization.

High-Speed, Low-Impact

Texas Central is the company undertaking the development, design, construction, finance, and operation of the innovative new high-speed passenger train line that will connect the fourth and fifth largest economies in the country—North Texas and Greater Houston—in less than 90 minutes, with one stop in the Brazos Valley. The Texas high-speed train will utilize nearly 10 million cubic yards of concrete – nearly three times the amount used to build the Hoover Dam. It will include three stations—one each in North Texas, Houston, and the Brazos Valley—plus train maintenance facilities to support routine upkeep of the system along the route. The train will also utilize nearly 1,100 miles of steel rail and more than 1.4 million concrete railroad ties.

The current design of the system calls for more than 48 percent of the 240 miles of tracks to be elevated on viaducts in order to preserve access for landowners. Where viaducts are not feasible for elevation, the system will run elevated berms. Both options, however, allow for the design of large and conveniently located underpasses or overpasses. Though large in magnitude, the railroad will only require a small footprint similar to a typical two-lane farm-to-market road and will follow existing right-of-way to the maximum extent possible.

This project gives Texans what they have been demanding—the freedom of choice when moving between the state’s two largest regions. The Texas high-speed train is good for Texas, providing a safe, affordable, and productive transportation choice that advances the State’s economy and prepares us for future growth.

2020–21 AEG/GSA Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer – Cheryl Hapke

Dr. Cheryl Hapke is a coastal geologist with more than twentyfive years of experience studying coastal evolution and coastal change processes in a variety of geomorphic settings. She received her PhD from the University of California Santa Cruz, a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland, and her BS in Geology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hapke worked for several decades with the U.S. Geological Survey as a research scientist, and now is a senior consultant in coastal resiliency with Integral Consulting. She also has an appointment as a research professor at the University of South Florida, College of Marine Science. Her current research focuses on coastal vulnerability and sea-level rise adaptation, developing new tools and approaches to evolve the science of coastal hazards. She has authored over eighty peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and technical reports, and served as a subject matter expert on coastal change hazards to local, state, and federal agencies, and international groups.

Adaptation in a Changing World: From Covid to Coastal Resilience

Cheryl Hapke, Integral Consulting

2020 was a year like no other, with no precedence for a newly awarded Jahn’s Distinguished Lecturer. However, while much of society was shut down, natural processes kept changing our coasts. 2020 was the most active hurricane season on record and the fifth most costly, highlighting the ever-growing need for coastal communities and facilities, and the natural

Cheryl Hapke (left) with the City of South Padre Island Shoreline Director Kristina Boburka during a field assessment of the beaches and dunes

Figure 1. Results of a vulnerability assessment in this map showing sea level rise flood hazards and at-risk structures on Captiva Island, Florida

areas around them, to increase their resilience. Foundational to coastal resilience is the need to understand the geology and components of a coastal system and how the system has evolved and responded in the past. This understanding further requires us to develop and apply science-based models to forecast what is likely to happen in the future. Future impacts may be from slow, long-term processes such as flooding from rising seas, or rapid catastrophic events that cause severe erosion and destroy both the built and natural systems. The challenge is to determine the best adaptation strategies to support a resilient future.

Being the Jahn’s Lecturer in 2020 also required developing an adaptation strategy. Instead of traveling to give lectures to local chapters and universities, the winter/spring 2021 lectures were all virtual. In addition, instead of beginning the lecture series in the Fall of 2020, the tenure was shifted to the 2021 calendar year with the hopes that in-person lectures would be possible by the Fall of 2021. Lecture topics ranged from coastal landslides and highway management along the Big Sur, California coast to developing a statewide coastal seafloor mapping program in Florida and the importance of that mapping to improved coastal resilience and adaptation.

Between virtual lectures, studies were undertaken in two low-lying barrier island communities in the Gulf of Mexico to help understand vulnerabilities and risks, and to develop potential adaptation strategies: Captiva, Florida, and South Padre Island, Texas. Adaptation strategies in general fall into the categories of protect, accommodate, or relocate. They can range from green to gray; green strategies are actions such as habitat restoration or living shorelines, and gray strategies generally involve structures like seawalls or jetties.

The community of Captiva needed to understand where and when their community infrastructure will face the hazards of future sea level rise. Because they have a regular beach nourishment program which protects the outer coast, their primary concern is with flooding on the bay side of the barrier island. We characterized the geomorphology of the barrier island, compiled data of the community assets, and developed models to show which areas of the island would flood in scenarios of 1, 2, and 4 feet of sea level rise. The modelling output was used to assess what assets, including houses, commercial buildings, roads, and critical infrastructure would be impacted under each scenario (Figure 1). Utilizing the results of the hazard and risk assessments, we developed a series of conceptual adaptation strategies for the bayside of the island.

At South Padre Island, the focus is on the evolution of the ocean-facing beach and dune system. The City has a robust beach nourishment program and they needed to better understand what morphologies, such as dune height and beach width, will be the most resilient in the future. The study evaluates historical changes to the beach-dune morphology using a time series of twenty-five profiles spanning twenty-six years, and also included an on-site field assessment (photo on page 30). The results indicate that the northern section of the study area is substantially more vulnerable to flooding and erosion than the central and southern portions, and modelling is currently underway to evaluate future conditions.

Dealing with future changes, whether they be issues of human health or coastal hazards, will require adaptation to create a more resilient world!

continued…