About Me

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I am a doctoral student and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow at North Carolina State University, specializing in coastal engineering. My research investigates the drivers and impacts of chronic, "sunny day" flooding in North Carolina's Down East region.

I combine hydrodynamics with advanced data science, utilizing semantic image segmentation and numerical modeling methods to validate flood predictions against real-world sensor data. As a KIETS Climate Leader and University of Delaware alumnus, I am dedicated to bridging the gap between engineering models and communities.

Ryan McCune is a doctoral student and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow at North Carolina State University, specializing in coastal engineering. His research investigates the drivers and impacts of chronic, "sunny day" flooding in North Carolina's Down East region.

Ryan combines hydrodynamics with advanced data science, utilizing semantic image segmentation and numerical modeling methods to validate flood predictions against real-world sensor data. As a KIETS Climate Leader and University of Delaware alumnus, he is dedicated to bridging the gap between engineering models and communities.

In The News

Recent media coverage, interviews, and articles featuring work I have been involved with. Check out other news relating to the Sunny Day Flooding Project here!

DERN Meeting Announcement

NC State Climate and Sustainability Academy

Our team attended and presented at the recent Down East Resilience Network meeting.

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Coastal Areas Flood More Frequently

Coastal Review

Discussing our recent paper on frequency of flooding in coastal North Carolina.

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The Washington Post

Coverage of flooding in one of our partner communities, Carolina Beach.

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Grad School Profile

NC State Grad Student Profile

NC State University graduate student profile.

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Featured Work

My work focuses on developing and applying computational tools to understand chronic coastal flooding while engaging with community stakeholders.

Flood Image Rectification

Water level extraction from flooded imagery

We have developed a method to extract water levels from flooded imagery alone using semantic image segmentation and image georectification techniques. We quantify the added benefit of inundation quantification and analysis from imagery as compared to in-situ sensors.

Link to Code

Car Driving Through Flood

Chronic coastal flooding tolerance in rural North Carolina

Our team asked residents of rural Carteret County, NC about how they live with and tolerate frequent, sea-level rise driven flooding.

With these interviews, we describe how people stay in place despite flooding in the context of socio-economic change, uneven governance, and population aging. We are currently combining these findings with numerical models to explore changes to perceptions of risk and impacts to long-term community livability.

Interactive Report

I am always happy to connect and collaborate on ideas, advice, or any other inquiries. The best way to get in touch is via email.