A free presentation on the Chenier Plain and its importance to improving coastal restoration for Southwest Louisiana will be held from 2-3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in Room 101 of Frasch Hall Annex at McNeese State University.

Topics will include the background of the Chenier Plain, engineering and ecological research opportunities to provide coastal restoration and hurricane protection for the Chenier Plain, and future uncertainties.

Guest speakers are Natalie Snider, science director for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and Dr. Ehab Meselhe, director of the Center for Louisiana Inland Water Studies and an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Snider is vice chair of the Multiple Lines of Defense Assessment Team, has been active in the state’s comprehensive master plan planning process and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Study, which has included presentations to the National Academy of Sciences.

Meselhe’s research interests are environmental hydraulics and hydrology, monitoring and numerical modeling of natural water bodies and coastal wetlands, and contaminant and sediment transport. He has extensive experience in the area of computational hydraulics and fluid dynamics, river mechanics and sediment transport. He is a chair of the Computational Hydraulic Technical Committee - the Environmental Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and an associate editor for the Journal of Hydraulic Research of the International Association of Hydraulic Research.

Pre-registration is requested. For more information or to register, contact the McNeese Office of Research Services by e-mail at researchservices@mcneese.edu. Persons requesting accommodations in accordance with the ADA should contact the Office of the ADA Coordinator at least 72 hours before the event. Additional information is available from: the Office of the ADA Coordinator, Smith Hall, Room 127; Voice: (337) 475-5428; Fax: (337) 475-5960; TDD/TTY, Hearing Impaired: (337) 562-4227; or adacoordinator@mcneese.edu.