Daniel Okonkwo works on coastal protection, and specifically on the fact that most of it is designed for a shoreline that will not stay where it is. A seawall built to a hundred-year design life sits in a system where sediment supply, storm frequency and mean water level are all moving. The structure does not fail; the assumptions do.
His research combines physical modeling with long-term shoreline records to look at how protection schemes perform across decades rather than across a design storm. A recurring finding is that structures which perform well in isolation shift the problem along the coast, and that the shifted problem is usually somebody else's jurisdiction.
He is increasingly interested in nature-based approaches — restored marsh, engineered dune, living breakwater — not because they are fashionable but because they are the only options that add sediment rather than only redirecting it. He is equally clear that they are not a substitute for hard protection everywhere, and that claiming otherwise damages the case for using them where they work.
Okonkwo teaches MENG 420 Coastal Engineering Design and contributes to ENVS 380 Climate Change and Coasts. He joined the faculty in 2022.