Dr. Katy Serafin
Assistant Professor
Affiliate Faculty, Florida Climate Institute
Affiliate Faculty, UF Water Institute
she/her/hers
Focus Areas
- Focus Area 1: Earth System Science
- Focus Area 5: Catastrophes, Conservation, and Conflict
- Focus Area 6: Sustainability & Global Environmental Change
Research Statement:
I am a coastal scientist who researches extreme sea levels and coastal hazards to better understand how our coastlines are changing and the resultant consequences for people and places. I combine observational datasets with statistical and numerical models to understand the frequency, drivers, and impacts of coastal flooding and erosion events. Some of my interests include compound flooding hazards, extreme value analysis, coastal processes, human-natural coupled systems, flood risk management in a changing climate, and climate adaptation and resilience. The dynamic and broad nature of coastal science demands a highly interdisciplinary approach and I work with collaborators in different fields, institutions, and government agencies to enhance the resilience of communities to the impacts of coastal hazards.
Current Graduate Students
Doctorate
Master’s
Recent Courses:
IDS2935 Living with Rising Seas (Quest 2), Spring 2022
GEO4285/6938 Water, Risk, and Extreme Events, Spring 2022
Recent Funded Projects:
2020 – 2022, When forces collide: Developing a scalable framework for compound flood risk assessment Role: Co-PI with PI Thomas Wahl (Univ. Central Florida), Funded by the U.S. Coastal Research Program
Recent Publications
Bowers, C., Serafin, K. A., & Baker, J. (2022). A performance-based approach to quantify atmospheric river flood risk. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 22(4), 1371-1393.
Bick, I. A., Santiago Tate, A. F., Serafin, K. A., Miltenberger, A., Anyansi, I., Evans, M., Ortolano, L., Ouyang, D., & Suckale, J. (2021). Rising seas, rising inequity? Communities at risk in the San Francisco Bay Area and implications for adaptation policy. Earth’s Future, 9(7), e2020EF001963.
Kasmalkar, I. G., Serafin, K. A., Miao, Y., Bick, I. A., Ortolano, L., Ouyang, D., & Suckale, J. (2020). When floods hit the road: Resilience to flood-related traffic disruption in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Science advances, 6(32), eaba2423.
Serafin, K.A., Ruggiero, P., Parker, K. and Hill, D.F., 2019. What’s streamflow got to do with it? A probabilistic simulation of the competing oceanographic and fluvial processes driving extreme along-river water levels. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 19(7), pp.1415-1431. DOI: 10.5194/nhess-19-1415-2019
Serafin, K.A., Ruggiero, P., Barnard, P.L. and Stockdon, H.F., 2019. The influence of shelf bathymetry and beach topography on extreme total water levels: Linking large-scale changes of the wave climate to local coastal hazards. Coastal Engineering, 150, pp.1-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2019.03.012
Parker, K., Ruggiero, P., Serafin, K.A. and Hill, D.F., 2019. Emulation as an approach for rapid estuarine modeling. Coastal Engineering, 150, pp.79-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2019.03.004
Cohn, N., Ruggiero, P., García-Medina, G., Anderson, D., Serafin, K.A. and Biel, R., 2019. Environmental and morphologic controls on wave-induced dune response. Geomorphology, 329, pp.108-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.12.023
Mills, A.K., Bolte, J.P., Ruggiero, P., Serafin, K.A., Lipiec, E., Corcoran, P., Stevenson, J., Zanocco, C. and Lach, D., 2018. Exploring the impacts of climate and policy changes on coastal community resilience: Simulating alternative future scenarios. Environmental modelling & software, 109, pp.80-92. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.07.022
Serafin, K.A., Ruggiero, P. and Stockdon, H.F., 2017. The relative contribution of waves, tides, and nontidal residuals to extreme total water levels on US West Coast sandy beaches. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(4), pp.1839-1847. DOI: 10.1002/2016GL071020
Serafin, K.A. and Ruggiero, P., 2014. Simulating extreme total water levels using a time-dependent, extreme value approach. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 119(9), pp.6305-6329. DOI: 10.1002/2014JC010093
Educational Background
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, 2018 – 2019
- PhD in Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 2017
- M.S. in Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 2013
- B.A. in Environmental Studies, Connecticut College, 2008