2026 CSDMS meeting-031
From CSDMS
(if you haven't already)
Log in (or create account for non-CSDMS members)
Forgot username? Search or email:CSDMSweb@colorado.edu
Browse abstracts
PyWAVE: connecting ecogeomorphic modeling to beneficial use decision-making
Candice Piercy,
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center Vicksburg Mississippi, United States. candice.d.piercy@usace.army.mil
Thomas Huff, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Vicksburg Mississippi, United States. thomas.p.huff@usace.army.mil
Sydney Bufkin, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Vicksburg Mississippi, United States. sydney.d.bufkin@usace.army.mil
Nia Hurst, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Vicksburg Mississippi, United States. nia.r.hurst@usace.army.mil
The beneficial use (BU) of sediment dredged from US waterways for wetland restoration can improve the long-term resiliency and function of coastal systems. The Water Resources Development Act of 2024 commits the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to increasing the BU of suitable dredged material to 70%. Compliance with operational timelines and the BU mandate requires rapid communication between USACE and state and Federal resource agencies concerning the short-term impacts versus long term benefits of BU projects. While ecogeomorphic models of coastal wetland trajectories have been used to scenario test BU projects, typical outputs do not always directly address concerns of resource agencies (e.g., vegetation distribution, habitat utilization).
To serve the needs of USACE and non-Federal BU partners, we developed PyWAVE, a Python-based simple wetland functional metric calculator. PyWAVE works with common coastal wetland ecogeomorphic models (e.g., rCMEM) and calculates relevant resilience and functional metrics. The tool can run these models across a proposed domain or can ingest existing model outputs.
PyWAVE produces customizable metric reports and visualizations designed to clearly communicate temporally-variable effects of proposed BU projects. Reports and visualizations are adaptable based on the project requirements and range from simple comparison reports to robust customizable geospatial visualizations for complex scenario analysis.
