ASCE has honored David Ryan, P.E., with the 2024 Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award for dedication to building coastal resiliency and sustainability through shoreline and infrastructure planning and management.
Ryan is an integral part of our community’s (Nags Head, North Carolina) efforts to manage our infrastructure in the face of mounting challenges related to sea-level and groundwater rise, aging infrastructure, development pressure associated with an increase in seasonal and nonseasonal populations, and changing climatic conditions. He engages in almost every facet of our approach to meet these challenges. Currently he is overseeing the development of a shoreline management master plan that will determine our needs and recommend approaches to managing an eroding shoreline for the next 30 years. This will include an analysis of resource needs and a programmatic approach to permitting and environmental review for future projects and initiatives.
Ryan was instrumental in the town’s project with North Carolina Sea Grant to understand the town’s future vulnerability to sea-level rise (VCAPS) and increase the community’s capacity to develop sustainable adaptation approaches related to stormwater management, shoreline management, and wastewater systems. Since completing VCAPS, Ryan has advanced several additional projects and studies that have had a direct impact on our resilience. These include
- Completion of a decentralized wastewater management plan
- Implementation of a stormwater master plan and capital improvement program (with several projects completed)
- Design and installation of several groundwater-lowering systems to improve drainage capacity and wastewater system performance
- Updates to the town’s stormwater and floodplain management ordinances
The floodplain management ordinance employs several higher regulatory standards, including a minimum 9-foot local elevation standard townwide. This standard was developed using 20-plus years of flood elevation data collected townwide during significant storm events. In each of these projects, Ryan has been a champion for holistic and multipronged approaches that meet multiple goals and consider our unique set of problems in a comprehensive manner.
The Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to sustainable engineering practices in managing shorelines and coastal infrastructure through research, design, construction, or management of the natural and built environment in the coastal zone. The award recognizes the balance of coastal values with project needs.
