Thomas Wahl

NH Natural Hazards

The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Thomas Wahl for his fundamental contributions to the research on assessment of coastal-flood risk.

Thomas Wahl is a highly productive, well-cited and active member of the EGU early career scientist community. Despite being at an early stage in his career, his influence on coastal risk assessment over the years has been both consistent and striking.

During his PhD he developed a new database of high-quality tide gauge records and innovative statistical models to assess sea level changes and storm surge risks in the German Bight. This work has triggered an ongoing revision of coastal design standards along the German North Sea coast.

Among others, he was the first to discover significant changes in the seasonal sea-level cycle in the Gulf of Mexico, which also modulate hurricane storm surge risk.

His work on compound flooding from storm surges and precipitation along the US coast, summarised in a seminal paper published with Nature Climate Change helped shaping a new and active research field.

He is author of interdisciplinary publications in top professional journals, including two in Nature Communications and one in Nature Climate Change, spanning the areas of oceanography, hydrology, statistical modelling and coastal engineering.