Kelly Kibler is an associate professor of water resources engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida. She is a member of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research and a Faculty Fellow of UCF’s Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity. Kibler obtained her Ph.D. in water resources engineering and M.Sc. in forest engineering from Oregon State University, and her B.Sc. in environmental science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kibler worked with the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) before joining the UCF faculty. 

Kibler’s Ecohydraulics Laboratory conducts interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of water resources engineering and aquatic ecology. Targeting coupled biological and physical variables in river and estuarine systems, the Kibler Ecohydraulics Lab advances basic scientific knowledge in flow-biota interaction and its influence to hydrodynamics and sediment transport. Kibler’s research findings are applied to the design of natural infrastructure used to protect communities from climatic hazards, such as erosion and flooding. The Ecohydraulics Lab’s study of environmental fluid mechanics within complex three-dimensional canopies improves understanding of flow resistance and sediment transport mechanisms within natural aquatic features, such a vegetation or shellfish reefs.

• Water resources engineering
• Hydrodynamics
• Sediment transport
• Ecohydraulics
• Natural infrastructure

• Cannon+, D. J., K. M. Kibler, J. Taye+ and S.C. Medeiros (2023), Characterizing canopy complexity of natural and restored intertidal oyster reefs (Crassostrea virginica) with applications for natural and nature-based coastal infrastructure. Restoration Ecology, e13973. DOI: 10.1111/rec.1397
• M. Kibler, C. Pilato*, L. J. Walters, M. Donnelly and J. Taye+ (2022). Hydrodynamic limitations to mangrove seedling retention in sub-tropical estuaries, Sustainability, 14(14), 8605. DOI: 10.3390/su14148605
• Cannon+, D. J., K. M. Kibler, V. Kitskoudis+, S. C. Medeiros, and L. J. Walters (2022). Variation of mean flow and turbulence characteristics within canopies of restored intertidal oyster reefs as a function of restoration age. Ecological Engineering, 180: 106678. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106678
• Shokri*, M., Y. Gao, K. M. Kibler, D. B. Wang, M. J. Wightman and N. Rice* (2022). Contaminant transport from stormwater management areas to a freshwater karst spring in Florida: Results of near-surface geophysical investigations and tracer experiments. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 40, 101055. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101055
• Cannon+ D. J., K. M. Kibler, L. J. Walters and L. G. Chambers (2022). Hydrodynamic and biogeochemical evolution of a restored intertidal oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reef. Science of the Total Environment, 831: 154879. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154879
• Shokri*, M., K. M. Kibler, C. Hagglund**, A. Corrado**, D. B. Wang, M. Wanielista, and M. Beazley (2021). Hydraulic and nutrient removal effectiveness of vegetated filter strips (VFS) of engineered media for infiltration and treatment of contaminated roadway runoff. Journal of Environmental Management, 300, 113747. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113747
• Spiering*, D.W., K. M. Kibler, V. Kitsikoudis+, M. Donnelly, and L. J. Walters (2021). Detecting hydrodynamic changes after living shoreline restoration and through an extreme event using a Before-After-Control-Impact experiment. Ecological Engineering, 169, 106306. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2021.106306

* graduate student, ** undergraduate student, and + postdoctoral advisees

• UCF Research Incentive Award, 2021
• UCF Reach for the Stars Award, 2020
• NSF CAREER Award, 2019

• American Society of Civil Engineers Environmental and Water Resources Institute
• American Geophysical Union

• CWR 3201: Engineering Fluid Mechanics
• CWR 6007: Water Resources Engineering
• CWR 6235: Free Surface Flow
  CWR 6660: Water Policy, Planning and Governance