Select Page

Cigdem Akan, Ph.D.

Cigdem Akan, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist

Cigdem Akan, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Dr. Cigdem Akan has 17 years of experience modeling turbulent processes in aquatic environments, 12 years of which were specifically devoted to regional and nearshore wave, circulation, and water quality modeling. Her research experience is primarily concerned with environmental fluid mechanics, with a focus on turbulent flows. More specifically, there are four focus areas of her work: 1) regional and nearshore wave, circulation, and water quality modeling, 2) estuarine processes, 3) renewal energy (tidal and wave), and 4) assessment of coastal risk. She has extensive knowledge in uncertainty quantification, working with large and complex real-world data sets, and programming in Python, M...

Dr. Cigdem Akan has 17 years of experience modeling turbulent processes in aquatic environments, 12 years of which were specifically devoted to regional and nearshore wave, circulation, and water quality modeling. Her research experience is primarily concerned with environmental fluid mechanics, with a focus on turbulent flows. More specifically, there are four focus areas of her work: 1) regional and nearshore wave, circulation, and water quality modeling, 2) estuarine processes, 3) renewal energy (tidal and wave), and 4) assessment of coastal risk. She has extensive knowledge in uncertainty quantification, working with large and complex real-world data sets, and programming in Python, MATLAB, and high-performance computing environments. She is skilled with ocean and wave models such as ROMS, SWAN, WaveWatch III, and SLOSH.

Read More    Read Less   

Ocean Modeling

Southern California Study, California Served as the lead research scientist for an Office of Naval Research Departmental Research Initiative project for computational studies of oceanic circulation, water quality, biogeochemistry, and planktonic ecosystem population dynamics in the coastal regions of southern California. Developed a five-level nested-grid realistic model of the Southern California Bight to investigate interactions between the shelf and nearshore currents.
Mouth of Columbia River Study, Portland, Oregon Worked as one of the lead research scientists on the numerical modeling of waves and currents within the framework of a collaborative project named Data Assimilation and Remote Sensing for Littoral Applications (DARLA) funded by the Office of Naval Research. The Columbia River is known to have complex effects on coastal productivity, so modeling the flow patterns correctly for this region was essential for understanding the biological system. Conducted three-level nested-grid realistic simulations to investigate the mechanisms behind frontogenesis in the nearfield plume region outside the mouth of the Columbia River.

Oceanography

Frontal Dynamics at the Edge of the Columbia River Plume, Portland, Oregon Developed realistic simulations of the mouth of the Columbia to investigate strong density and velocity fronts that form perpendicular to the coast at the edges of the freshwater plume. The study focused on the northern edge front, analyzing characteristics such as water mass gradients, velocity structure, vertical mixing, and frontogenetic tendencies. Results showed that the tidal fronts display strong horizontal velocity and buoyancy gradients on a scale of approximately 100 meters.
Topographic and Coastline Influences on Surf Eddies, Worldwide Developed 3-dimensional simulations with idealized conditions to study rip currents resulting from the momentum flux generated by the depth-induced breaking of surface gravity waves on beaches with irregular bottom topography. It is observed that transient surf eddy variability is significantly enhanced over irregular topography, especially at nearly normal incident wave angles. Smooth topography, on the other hand, exhibits transient shear instability with highly oblique incident waves, while irregular topography generates standing rip eddies. Moreover, the results showed that in the presence of larger-scale coastline variations, mega-rip circulations emerge, particularly strong in embayments.
Wave-Current Interaction at the Mouth of the Columbia River, Portland, Oregon Used a 3‑dimensional ocean circulation model coupled with a wave propagation model to explore wave-current interactions at the mouth of the Columbia River. Tidal currents, especially in ebb flows, intensified wave heights at the mouth entrance. Nonlocal modifications to the wave field were observed, with wave energy redirected toward the inlet mouth. Significant wave amplification occurred at the expanding plume's edge during later ebb stages, potentially impacting navigation safety. The study also found that waves shifted the plume down-wave, more pronounced for larger waves, influenced by alongshore advection terms related to Stokes velocities.

Water Quality Modeling

City of Jacksonville Coupled Water Quality Model Development, Jacksonville, Florida Developed a realistic hydrodynamic model of the Florida East Coast coupled with a biogeochemistry (water quality) model for the Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board. Carried out simulations for this study using the coupled ocean-atmosphere wave sediment transport modeling system. This was the first coupled modeling study of the Saint Johns River basin.

Risk Assessment

Vulnerability Analysis for Saint Johns River Basin, Florida Developed a coastal vulnerability model for the Saint Johns River to produce map outputs of the coastal landscape’s exposure to flooding and erosion when faced with extreme weather. Also examined the interconnection of physical and geological hazards with social vulnerability (by using total population and population below poverty), a commonly neglected aspect of coastal vulnerability analyses (CVAs), and natural habitats, another component not typically included in CVAs.

Renewable Energy

Design and Analysis of a Wave Energy Converter with Electromagnetic Induction, Worldwide Designed a wave energy converter that is affordable, durable, easily deployable, scalable, and environmentally friendly, targeting two main blue economy markets under resilient coastal communities—isolated communities and coastal resiliency and disaster recovery.
RETURN TO OUR TEAM PAGE