Western Carolina University faculty member Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at WCU, has been appointed to the South Carolina Blue Ribbon Committee on Shoreline Management.
The committee is being convened to evaluate policy needs related to beach front and estuarine shoreline management in South Carolina.
In addition, Young has been named to a committee to guide the next National Climate Assessment meeting to be held at the United States Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Va. He also recently became chair of the Geological Society of America’s annual program committee.
Founded at Duke University in 1986 by Orrin H. Pilkey, the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of the Earth Sciences at Duke, PSDS relocated to WCU in 2006 under the guidance of Young, a former student of Pilkey.
The program has become an internationally known advocate for responsible coastal management policies that consider and balance economic and environmental interests. The program emphasizes research focusing on beach replenishment and other forms of shoreline stabilization, hazard risk mapping on barrier islands, sedimentary processes on shorefaces, and mitigation of hurricane property damage on barrier islands.
