Three University of Delaware scientists are studying tidal water flow and sediment movement in a Kent County salt marsh to better understand changes to the marsh ecosystem due to a rising sea level.

Caught in a federal-state funding standoff that one Delaware official said could put lives at risk, widely used public tide and weather monitors at more than 10 Delaware River and Bay sites face shutdown by September.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posted the shutdown notice with little fanfare for its local Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS) sites. Few outside of river and bay maritime interests were aware of the threat on Thursday.

Launched in 2011, the Coastal Flood Monitoring System (CFMS) supports planning and emergency management for Delaware Bay communities before and during coastal storm or high tide events. It was developed by John Callahan, a research associate for the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS), and Kevin Brinson, a researcher for the Delaware Environmental Observing System (DEOS). The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Delaware EPSCoR program funded the project.

4:37 p.m., Oct. 31, 2012--The Office of the State Climatologist and the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS), both based at the University of Delaware, provided the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and the National Weather Service with weather, coastal flooding and stream flooding information for Delaware during Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy was a major storm event for the tidal areas of Delaware. As a part of the mission of the Delaware Geological Survey, we have compiled preliminary data related to Delaware tide and stream levels related to the Hurricane Sandy and compared them with previous flooding records.

Kelvin Ramsey was quoted in the special section of Coastal Point, which featured the 50th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday 1962 nor'easter

David R. Wunsch is the new Director and State Geologist at the Delaware Geological Survey.

This project will assess tsunami hazard from the above mentioned and other relevant tsunami sources recently studied in the literature and model the corresponding tsunami inundation in affected US East coast communities. We will combine ocean scale simulations of transoceanic tsunami sources, such as Lisbon 1755 like or Puerto Rico Trench co-seismic events, and CVV collapse, with regional scale simulations of these events, along with the regional scale SMF events, in order to establish the relative degree of hazards for East Coast communities. Detailed inundation studies will be conducted for highest-risk East Coast communities, and results of these studies will be used to construct a first-generation of tsunami inundation maps for the chosen communities.

Kelvin Ramsey, a geologist with the Delaware Geological Survey was quoted in News Journal article about rainfall.

Two state agencies, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), collaborated with the University of Delaware and the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) and found an answer in the Delaware Environmental Observing System (DEOS). DEOS was created in 2003 as a real-time, regional monitoring system that provides data on weather conditions, water levels, snow depth, and various other environmental factors obtained from automated weather stations in and around the state.

In support of the University of Delaware's sustainability efforts, the Delaware Geological Survey is offering its First State Geology newsletter as an online document.

First State Geology features news about Delaware geology and water resources, recent DGS publications, and DGS staff activities.

DGS researchers Tom McKenna and John Callahan presented some of their work at the Delaware Estuary Science and Environmental Summit at Cape May, NJ, and hosted by the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

More money would go to projects that make Delaware cleaner, greener and safer under a mostly no-growth budget outlined Monday by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Agency Secretary Collin P. O'Mara asked the Office of Management and Budget for about $35.2 million in general funds for the fiscal year that begins July 1, with health care costs accounting for most of the nearly $2 million increase from the current year.

State Geologist John Talley was quoted in this news story about tidal streams.

During the last two decades, storms such as Hurricanes Katrina and Ike along the Gulf of Mexico and Floyd and Hugo along the Atlantic Coast of the United States have resulted in significant loss of life, injuries, and property damages exceeding well over 100 billion dollars. Much of the damage associated with these and other tropical and extra-tropical weather systems is associated with severe coastal flooding. The purpose of this project is to develop a real-time coastal flood monitoring and warning system for the coastal communities in Kent County, Delaware. This system will serve as a prototype for similar early-warning systems, which may then be applied along the entire Delaware coast.

The University of Delaware's first Geospatial Research Day took place in the Trabant University Center on Thursday, Nov. 19. The free event highlighted the geospatial research being conducted at the University of Delaware and the ways in which UD community members are using geospatial technology.

Francois Morel, Albert G. Blanke Jr. Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University, and William H. Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will present scientific talks during the official launch of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) at the University of Delaware's Mitchell Hall in Newark, Del., on Friday, Oct. 23.