Siddharth Narayan
Dr. Siddharth Narayan (Sid) hails from Chennai, a tropical coastal city in South India where he completed his bachelor’s in civil engineering. Since then, he has lived and worked in coastal cities, towns and beaches of varying sizes all around the world. He obtained an Erasmus Mundus MSc in coastal engineering and management from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands and a Ph.D. in coastal flooding from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He then moved to the Pacific coast where he was a postdoctoral scholar and then a research scientist on coastal adaptation and nature-based solutions at the University of California in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
A civil and coastal engineer by training, Narayan investigates coastal hazards and sustainable adaptation solutions, with an emphasis on making science relevant and applicable to policy and decision-makers. His research focuses on understanding and identifying where and how coastal ecosystems like wetlands and reefs can be restored and managed to reduce risks to people at the coastline. Sid is a contributing co-author on guidelines and guidance documents on the consideration and use of nature-based solutions for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In addition to peer-reviewed publications his work and writings have been featured in multiple media outlets including Scientific American, The Atlantic, Forbes Magazine, The Conversation and in a White House memo on coastal resilience.
Education
University of Southampton, Ph.D., Coastal Engineering, 2014
Delft Technical University, MSc, Coastal Engineering, 2009
S.R.M. Institute of Technology, B.Tech, Civil Engineering, 2007
Professional Experience
2020 to Present: Assistant Professor, Department of Coastal Studies, ECU
2018-2020: Assistant Research Scientist, University of California Santa Cruz
2016-2018: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California Santa Cruz
2014-2016: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California Santa Barbara
2009-2010: Project Office, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Selected Publications
S. Narayan, Beck, M.W., Wilson, P., Thomas, C.J, Guerrero, A., Shepard, C.C., Reguero, B.G., Franco, G., Ingram, C.J., Trespalacios, D. The Value of Coastal Wetlands for Flood Damage Reduction in the Northeastern USA. Scientific reports 7, 9463 (2017).
S. Narayan, Beck, M.W., Reguero, B.G., Losada, I.J., Van Wesenbeeck, B., Pontee, N., Sanchirico, J.N., Ingram, J.C., Lange, G.M. and Burks-Copes, K.A., 2016. The effectiveness, costs and coastal protection benefits of natural and nature-based defences. PloS one, 11(5), p.e0154735.
P. Menendez, Losada, I.J., Beck, M.W., S. Torres, A. Espejo, Narayan, S., P. Díaz-Simal, G.M. Lange, 2018. Valuing the Protection Services of Mangroves at National Scale: The Philippines. Ecosystem Services, 34, pp.24-36.
S. Narayan, Nicholls, R. J., Clarke, D., Hanson, S., Reeve, D., Horrillo-Caraballo, J., Le Cozannet, G., Hissel, F., Kowalska, B. & Parda, R. 2014. The SPR Systems Model As A Conceptual Foundation For Rapid Integrated Risk Appraisals: Lessons From Europe. Coastal Engineering, 87, 15-31.
T. Suzuki, Zijlema, M., Burger, B., Meijer, M. C., and Narayan, S. 2012. Wave dissipation by vegetation with layer schematization in SWAN. Coastal Engineering, 59, 64-71.
Narayan, S., Suzuki, T., Stive, M.J.F., Verhagen, H.J., Ursem, W.N.J. and Ranasinghe, R., 2010. On the effectiveness of mangroves in attenuating cyclone induced waves. In Proceedings of the 32th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, ICCE 2010, June/July, Shanghai.