Resume
SPECIALIZATION --
Marine
and coastal geology, sedimentation, hydrodynamics of sediment
transport,
nearshore current systems, tidal hydrodynamics, and sea level rise.
EDUCATION
Arts Bachelor,
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Studied
sedimentation and tidal
hydrodynamics in
Research was carried out for
one year on
Employed as a geologist for the
U.S.
Army Corps of
Engineers, Galveston District, summer
1968.
Worked
in Coastal Studies Section on littoral drift
problems at
inlets, on sedimentation within the Houston Ship Channel, and installed
tide
gauges and hurricane surge gages all over the
Participated in a
cruise on the
R.V. Eastward, 1971, to collect cores and bathymetric data along the
north
coast of
Invited field trip
co-leader for
Organized a program
to educate
the public in the
Consultant for Southwest
Research
Institute -
Ocean Science and Engineering Laboratory, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1973
to write
the final reports for four oceanographic studies of the Louisiana
continental
shelf.
Research Associate -
The
University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Port
UTMSI
CONTRACTS INCLUDED
THE FOLLOWING
A study of the
sedimentation and hydrodynamics of the newly (1972) opened
In conjunction
with the
study described above, we analyzed rates of channel erosion and filling
for the
Under contract
with the
Corpus Christi Office of Marine Geology, I have compiled all existing
data both
quantitative and qualitative about the littoral drift system of the
Under contract
with the
Southwest Region of the National Park Service, we studied the long term
effect
of vehicular traffic on backshore vegetation and the stability of the
main
foredune line. Changes were correlated with traffic intensity and
evaluation of
the natural plant community in each area.
Co-convenor
with E. William Behrens of a Workshop on Coastal Sedimentology,
Engineering
Geology and Related Environmental Studies, held at U.T. Marine Science
Institute, 25-27 September, 1975.
Visiting assistant
professor in
the Department of Geology at the
Extensive field, laboratory,
and library
research
on the geologic history and sedimentation of wind -tidal flats of
southern
Laguna Madre for a tidal boundary dispute between the upland property
owners
and the state of
Preparation of a
report for RPI
on the erosional history of Mustang and
Bathymetric
surveying and
mapping of the canal system at Padre Isles,
Controlled aerial
photography of
the city of
Very extensive, field,
laboratory and
library
research on the geologic and hydrologic history of the wind-tidal flats
of the
Kenedy Ranch, Kenedy County, Texas for a tidal boundary dispute between
the
state of Texas and the upland owner, 1987-95. After years in court, the
Supreme
Court of Texas returned a judgment in favor of my clients settling the
rules
for tidal boundaries in the State of
Study of the tidal
discharge at
the mouth of
Expert witness for the John G.
and Marie
Stella
Kenedy Memorial Foundation at the trial in the District Court Travis
Co.,
Review feasibility studies for
re-opening
Review plans for stabilizing
the
entrance channel
to Island Moorings Marina and Development with geotube jetties and
other
structures. For Airport and Channel Corporation, January 1997.
Prepare report on the
groundwater
hydrology of
Prepare report on shoaling in
the
Leggett Light
Channel from
Prepared report on Beach
Erosion Caused
by
Permanent Sand Loss Through
Rollover Fish
Pass,
Prepared a report on
Severe
Beach Erosion at Surfside, Texas Caused by Engineering Modifications to
the
Coast and Rivers, 2003, for home owners at Surfside Texas. Serving as an expert
witness in
litigation with the state.
Prepared a report on
Dredge
Material Disposal on the John G. and
Faculty member and
presenter at
CLE International Texas Coastal Law conference,
Speaker at Coastal
Texas 2020
Technical Erosion conference, Sept. 14-16, 2005 in
Invited to present a talk at the
University of Texas Marine Science Institute public lecture series.
My talk was titled Protect
the Natural Dune Seawall: Our First Line of Defense Against
Hurricanes at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute
at Port
Aransas, Texas, January 12, 2006. It was attended by a standing
room only crowd of over 200.
Ex-Officio member of the temporary Beach
Maintenance Committee appointed by the City Council of Port Aransas
from May to
November 2006. My position was to
educate and guide the committee, city staff and GLO representatives in
finding
better beach management practices to protect and enhance our natural
dune
seawall.
Invited speaker at Del Mar College in
Invited speaker at the Harte Research
Institute of
the
Invited speaker at the American Shore
and Beach Preservation Association - Texas General Land Office
Conference in Galveston, Texas on October 24, 2007. The paper was
titled “Balancing
Growth of the Natural Dune Seawall with Maintenance of Tourist Beaches”
Served as an expert witness for the Brown McCarroll and Baker Botts
law
firms who were representing two wind farm companies Babcock and Brown
and
Iberdrola respectively. The Coastal
Habitat Alliance brought suit in federal court to stop construction of
these
two large wind farms on the Kenedy Ranches in Kenedy Co.,
Dr. Watson presented a talk titled Was
Hurricane Ike a wake-up call, or are we going back to sleep? on January 15, 2008 at the
Dr. Watson presented a talk titled Was
Hurricane Ike a wake-up call, or are we going back to sleep? on January 15 and February 17, 2009 at
the
Invited participant and speaker in the
2009 Gulf
Coast Marine Conference in
Presented an invited lecture in the
Public Lecture
Series at the
Presented an invited lecture at the Sargassum Conference 2009 held at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute at Port Aransas, Texas on April 30, 2008. The talk was titled What has Hurricane Ike taught us about beach and dune management?
Published an invited article titled "Evaluation of coastal response to Hurricane Ike through pre-storm and post-storm aerial photography" in Shore and Beach Vol. 77, No. 2, 49-59. This entire issue of Shore and Beach, the Journal of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association is dedicated to description and analysis of the damage to the Louisiana and Texas coasts by Hurricane Ike which came ashore on September 13, 2008.
Presented an invited lecture on Hurricane Ike to the Builders Association of Corpus Christi on May 6, 2009.
On
June 4-5, 2009 The Texas General Land Office held the Texas Coastal
Conference 2009 in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Watson gave an invited
presentation titled What has
hurricane Ike taught us about beach and dune management. You
can download and watch this narrated powerpoint presentation at the
following link. The file is about 20 mb, so it is best to
download it
rather than just click on it, unless you have a very fast internet
connection. Download
the presentation here.
SUBSIDIARY LICENSES AND
CERTIFICATES
Thirty years of experience as
captain
and
navigator of small vessels to 110 ft. and 200 tons in coastal and ocean
service. Over 100,000 miles of ocean experience. This includes
commercial
fishing vessels, sail and motor yachts and oil field service vessels. Entries in many countries including
about 20 transits of
the
US ,
SCUBA certification
SUBSIDIARY EXPERIENCE
Extensive experience
in
designing and fabricating research equipment. Ability to service most
mechanical and
simple electronic equipment. Experience in
digital
photography, computer programming, spreadsheet construction, computer
drafting
& drawing and internet.
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Behrens,
E.W. and R.L. Watson, 1967. Sorting of Bivalves, an indication of
longshore drift,
abs., Texas
Journal of Science.
Behrens,
E.W., and R.L. Watson, 1969. Differential sorting of pelecypod
valves
in the swash zone, Journal of
Sedimentary.
Petrology,
V.
39, No. 1, 159-165.
Watson, R.L.,
1967. Is
there a longshore drift convergence on Central Padre Island, abs., Transactions
of the
Watson, R.L.,
1968. Origin
of shell beaches, Padre Island,
Texas, Master's
Thesis, The University of Texas at
Watson, R.L.,
1969.
Modified Rubey's
law accurately predicts
sediment
settling velocities, Water
Resources Research, V. 5, No. 5,
1147-1150.
Watson, R.L.,
and
Behrens, E.W., 1971, Nearshore surface currents, southeastern
Watson, R.L.,
1971. Origin
of Shell
Beaches, Padre Island, Texas, Journal
of Sedimentary Petrology,
V.
41, No. 4, 1105-1111.
Hunter,
R.E., R.L. Watson, G.W. Hill, and K.A. Dickinson, 1972. Modern depositional
Environments and Processes,
Northern
and Central Padre Island, Texas in:
Padre Island National Seashore
Field
Guide,
Behrens,
E.W., and R.L. Watson, 1973.
Behrens,
E.W., R.L. Watson, P.D. Carangelo,
W.H. Sohl,
and H.S. Finkelstein, 1974. Beach impact study, Padre
Island
National Seashore, in:
Transactions of
Behrens,
E.W., R.L. Watson, P.D. Carangelo,
W.H. Sohl,
and H.S. Finkelstein, 1975. Effect of vehicular and
pedestrian
traffic on backshore vegetation and dune development, Final report for
contract
CX 700040146 for studies in the Padre Island National Seashore with the
Southwest Region National Park Service,
Watson, R.L.,
1975. The
littoral drift system of the
Watson, R.L.,
1975. The
relationship between littoral drift rate and the longshore component of
wave
energy flux, Ph.D. dissertation,
The University of Texas at
Behrens,
E.W., R.L. Watson, and C. Mason, 1977. Hydraulics and Dynamics of
Watson,
R.L., and E.W. Behrens, 1976.
Hydraulics and dynamics of New Corpus Christi Pass, Texas: a case
history,
1973-75, GITI REPORT 9, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers Coastal
Engineering
Research Center, Ft. Belvoir,
VA, 175p.
Behrens,
E.W., and R.L. Watson, 1977. Corpus
Christi water exchange
pass 1972 to 1976,
in:
Coastal Sediments '77, 5th Symposium of the Waterway, Port, Coastal and
Ocean
Division, Amer. Soc. Civ.
Engrs.,
790-796.
Oetking, Back, Watson, and Merks. 1979. Physical studies of the
nearshore
continental shelf
of South Central Louisiana: currents and hydrography.,
in: Ward,
Bender, and Reish,
eds.,
The
Offshore Ecology Investigation, Effects of Oil Drilling and Production
in a
Coastal Environment, Rice
University Studies, 119-143.
Oetking, Back, Watson, and Merks. 1979. Surface and shallow
subsurface sediments
of the
nearshore continental shelf of South Central
Watson,
Richard L. 1979.
Geological history of south Padre
Island wind-tidal flats.
report
prepared for
the law firm
of McGinnis, Lochridge
& Kilgore,
Watson,
Richard L., 1979.
Bathymetric
surveying and mapping of the canal
system at
Padre Isles Subdivision, North Padre Island, Texas.
Watson,
Richard L.,
1979, Long
and short term erosional history of Mustang
and Padre
Islands with probable impact due to oil spill clean up procedures.
Report
prepared for RPI in order to evaluate effects of IXTOC oil spill clean
up on
Watson,
Richard L.,
1980, Controlled aerial photography of City of
Watson,
Richard L.,
Tunnell, John W., Jr., Lothrop,
William
N., and
Ratliff, Shannon H., Esq. 1990, Shoreline determination along gently
sloping
shores: a multidisciplinary approach in the Texas Laguna Madre.
The
Coastal
Society 12th conference, San Antonio, Texas .
abs.
Watson,
Richard L.,
Tunnell, John W., Lothrop,
William N., and
Ratliff,
Shannon, H., Esq., 1990. Shoreline determination along gently sloping
shores: a
multidisciplinary approach; in:
Proc. 12th Int. Conf. of the
Coastal Society,
pp. 755-764.
Watson,
Richard L.,
1991. Oso
bay tide and discharge study, in:
Watson,
Richard L. and Thompson, Randy, 1979, Hydrologic
Study of Water
Exchange
Structures Blind Oso
Habitat Enhancement
Program.
Research Report submitted by Archie Walker Engineering to
Watson,
Richard L.,
1987-1995, Numerous reports submitted to McGinnis, Lochridge
& Kilgore in conjunction with an ongoing investigation of the
geologic
history and hydrology of the wind-tidal flats of Kenedy County, Texas
for the
lawsuit between the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation
and the
State of Texas.
1988,
Preliminary report on investigations of the recent geological history
of the
supra-tidal flats of
1989,
Sedimentation
rates Kenedy Ranch supra-tidal flats.
1990, Postglacial submergence south Texas coast.
1991,
Historical
topography of the Kenedy Ranch supra-tidal flats.
Watson, Richard L. 2005-2009. Compilation of aerial photography of Texas Inlets and Barrier Islands.
Watson, Richard L., 2006. Coastal Law and the Geology of a Changing Shoreline, 2006. Report prepared for CLE Texas Coastal Law Conference at the Tremont House,
Galveston, TX, May 18-19, 2006.
Watson, Richard L., 2009. Evaluation of coastal response to Hurricane Ike through pre-storm and post-storm aerial photography. Shore and Beach Vol. 77, No. 2, 49-59
