About
Dr Hachem Kassem is a coastal engineer and oceanographer whose research sits at the interface between ocean engineering and environmental geoscience. Hachem's teaching and research interests span a range of coastal and shallow marine processes and geohazards, exploring environmental and anthropogenic drivers and impacts of coastal change and informing the design of adaptive, resilient and nature-inclusive solutions to climate-mediated hazards such as coastal erosion, flooding, and habitat degradation, as well as the sustainable provision of offshore renewable energy and marine resources. He integrates experimental, numerical, and field investigations to resolve coastal hydrodynamics and sediment transport (cohesive, granular, and mixed sediments), quantify how changing metocean conditions drive coastal hazards, and advance the evidence-base for nature-inclusive and adaptive solutions.
Hachem is the SMMI Champion of the Nature-based Ocean Solutions Special Interest Group and leads the MSc Programme in Applied Coastal and Offshore Geoscience, delivered jointly by the School of Ocean and Earth Science and the School of Engineering. Hachem also runs the coastal teaching and research laboratories within the School of Ocean and Earth Science, which host recirculating and annular flumes and sediment analysis facilities, and associated field monitoring equipment.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Nearshore hydrodynamics and coastal sediment dynamics
- Coastal and ocean engineering and flow-structure-seabed-biota interactions
- Adaptive, nature-inclusive solutions to climate-mediated geohazards, including flooding, erosion and habitat degradation
- Turbulence, boundary layers and loose boundary hydraulics
Current research
Hachem's research spans a range of coastal and marine processes and hazards, exploring environmental and anthropogenic drivers and impacts of coastal change, and informing the design of adaptive, sustainable, and nature-inclusive solutions to promote coastal resilience, and ensure sustainable provision of energy and resources.
Hachem also studies and supervises research into the interactions between ocean and atmosphere, linking regional climates to coastal hazards to assess vulnerability and resilience of key infrastructure (including nuclear power stations and railway lines), and examining sea surface temperature trends and marine heatwaves and their impacts on coastal morphpdynamics and infrastructure, cultural heritage sites and coastal ecosystems. He currently leads/co-leads projects on mapping seagrass using autonomous systems, gravel barrier beach dynamics, protecting coral islands, and maritime search and rescue. This is supported by collaborations with industry, government and regulatory agencies, NGOs, and local authorities, with applications ranging from optimising nature-inclusive or bio-inspired scour protection, eco-reefs and on-bottom cable protections for offshore renewable energy; monitoring benthic roughness to improve parametrisations of friction in flood models, studying biogeochemical cycling across the sediment-water interface; assessing the role of saltmarshes, mangroves and seagrasses in flow attenuation, sediment stabilisation, carbon sequestration and microplastic retention; and examining particle settling in aquaculture sites.
Hachem led an Environment Agency-funded project (2019-2024) in Pevensey Bay, UK, applying novel field monitoring tools for rapid characterisation of the nearshore of a composite, mixed shingle barrier beach. The project integrates X-Band radar, benthic landers and rapid shallow surveys using autonomous systems to provide near real-time spatial and temporal measurements of nearshore hydrodynamics and shoreface sediment transport, allowing a step-change in understanding of composite beach dynamics and recovery. The project is closely allied with NERC Highlight-funded project #GravelBeaches on gravel barrier resilience in a changing climate.
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Hachem is the programme lead for the MSc Applied Coastal and Offshore Geoscience (full & part time). Hachem coordinates modules on coastal sediment dynamics and applied coastal oceanography, teach on sediment in the environment; coastal morphodynamics, sea level rise and coastal management, geotechnics for geoscientists and how to be scientifically literate. Hachem also contributes to curriculum development across the geosciences and oceanography programmes and supervises indepndent and group student projects on a range of subjects including coastal ocean processes and hazard assessment, coastal hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics, coastal and offshore engineering, marine scour protection, nature-based solutions and fluid-seabed-structure/biota interactions. Hachem was SOES's Assessment Officer and the Academic Responsibility and Conduct (Academic Integrity) Officer (2022-2025).
Module Coordinator:
- SOES6096 Coastal Sediment Dynamics
- SOES6081 Key Skills and Applied Coastal Oceanography
- SOES6093 Geotechnics for Geoscientists
Module Instructor:
- SOES6011 Sea Level Rise and Coastal Management
- SOES2024 Sediment in the Environment
- SOES6097 Coastal Morphodynamics
Project Supervision:
- SOES3035 Ocean and Earth Science Research Training [Group Project]
- SOES3046 Independent Research Project
- SOES6086 Advanced Independent Research Project
Tutor Support:
- SOES1017 How to be Scientifically Literate
- SOES2000 Ocean and Earth Science Part 2
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
2022 - Lecturer in Ocean Engineering, University of Southampton
2017 - 2021 Teaching and Research Fellow in Coastal Morphodynamics, University of Southampton
2015 - 2017 Teaching Fellow in Coastal Morphodynamics and GIS [Part-time], University of Southampton
2010 - 2012 Lecturer in Civil Engineering, The London College - University College Kensington