Bret M. Webb, Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE
Professor - Department of Civil, Coastal, and Environmental Engineering
University of South Alabama
Recent Activities & Updates
April 2024: I recently completed an assessment of compound flood sensitivity to sea level rise in the Fowl River (Alabama) watershed. You can find a very brief overview of the methodology and results in this document.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Bret Webb is a Professor of Coastal Engineering in the Department of Civil, Coastal, and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Alabama. Dr. Webb has more than 20 years of experience as a civil/coastal engineer including considerable time in both consulting and academia. Dr. Webb is a licensed professional engineer (AL, FL) and is recognized by the Academy of Coast, Ocean, Port, and Navigation Engineers as a Board Certified Coastal Engineer (BC.CE).
Dr. Webb’s area of research and professional practice deals with coastal resilience. Within that broad topic, he focuses on resilience of the built environment to extreme events and climate change, and on the resilience benefits provided by natural and nature-based features. Dr. Webb has more than 50 publications and has given close to 100 technical presentations on coastal resilience topics. Some of those publications include guidance documents for the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration; the Transportation Research Board; and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Webb's work has been featured in the National Climate Assessment, President Obama's Climate Action Plan, White House reports, and testimonies before Congress.
Current Research Projects
We are collaborating with the University of Florida to augment the capabilities of their Sentinel hurricane towers.
Learn more about our work with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab as part of the Alabama Comprehensive Monitoring Program.
We are working with Auburn University and the University of New Hampshire on their ESLR-funded surface transportation resilience projects.
Interested in tropical seagrasses? Check out our work with the University of the Virgin Islands on their Ridge to Reef project.
Follow this link to learn more about our research projects in Little Lagoon, a small coastal estuary in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
We are searching for Systems Engineering Approaches for Resilience to Coastal Hazards (SEARCH). Learn more here.
Learn more about our work as part of the NIST-funded Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning.
Need to measure tides or waves in the ocean but can't afford the price of commercially available sensors? Check out our (MS State + USA) do-it-yourself pressure sensors!
The Center for Applied Coastal Engineering & Science (ACES) is your one-stop-shop for coastal monitoring, modeling, and testing.