Bio & Expertise
Klaus J. Meyer-Arendt, professor emeritus at the University of West Florida’s Department of Environmental Studies, has a coastal background extending from Germany’s Elbe estuary to Oregon, Louisiana, and Florida. Combining his Louisiana State University academic training in cultural-historical geography and coastal geomorphology led him into coastal tourism and the environmental impacts of coastal resort development. His research focused primarily on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico (USA and Mexico) and the Caribbean Sea and include hurricane impacts and shoreline erosion. In 1994, Klaus was the recipient of a Fulbright/García Robles research award to Yucatán, Mexico, where his research focus was upon human modification of shorelines. Late-career research centered on hurricane impacts, storm-surge measurement, and coastal tourism development. Klaus retired in late 2016 but continues to publish, including a 2020 article on crawfish in the Pacific Northwest.