Scholarship Recipient to Study Coastal Erosion

A Victoria Latin America Doctoral Scholarship will allow Isabela Cabral from Brazil to study long-term coastal erosion at the Center for Ocean Engineering, Science and Technology at Swinburne University of Technology.

Ms Cabral (photo), from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, is one of only four high performing PhD students from Latin America to receive the new scholarship.

She will use numerical models to study long-term coastal erosion due to climate change in polar, moderate and tropical latitudes.

“Climate change has intensified coastal erosion worldwide. Recent studies show a general trend of increasing wind speed and wave height as well as increasing global temperatures,” Ms Cabral said.

“Using detailed near-shore sediment modelling my research will investigate coastal erosion at three different points – the Arctic, Australia and Brazil.

“By comparing those three points with very different climates — polar, moderate and tropical – I hope to be able to make some global conclusions about climate change.”

The Victoria Latin America scholarship is worth up to $90,000 and is funded by the Victorian Government.

Swinburne and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for joint oceanographic and ocean engineering research and are developing a PhD double degree in Engineering and Science.