Past Research Projects

Duration: 2019–2022

Funding Agency: T3: Texas A&M Triads for Transformation (Project ID: 1450)

Funding Amount: $30,000

PI: Lei Zou

Co PIs: Qingsheng Wang, Michelle Meyer

Abstract:

Community resilience is the community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and more successfully adapt to catastrophic events. It is an urgent societal challenge that captures academics and decision-makers’ attention from various fields and sectors.

Technological disasters are catastrophic events caused by either human failure in controlling technology or malfunction of engineering systems, such as structural collapses (e.g., bridges and oil refinery) and industrial accidents (e.g., storage tank fires and chemical explosions). Technology-based disasters are as severe as natural disasters and sometimes could be triggered by natural disasters. However, most of the previous investigations of disaster resilience focused on natural hazards. Less than 3% of them aim to evaluate and improve community resilience to technological catastrophes.

In this research, we will develop a framework to measure and improve community resilience to technological disasters. Using the City of Houston as an example, we aim to answer three research questions:

1. What are the risks and impacts of technological disasters in the Houston area?

2. Which communities are more resilient to technological disasters in the Houston area?

3. How to improve public awareness, preparedness, and resilience of technological disasters?

The developed framework will shed light on measuring and improving community resilience to technological disasters across the nation. Results from this research will inform the Houston government and residents on preparedness and mitigation strategies for technological disasters.

Duration: 2020–2022

Funding Agency: T3: Texas A&M Triads for Transformation (Project ID: 1819)

Funding Amount: $30,000 plus $2,000 Research Experience for Undergraduate Support

PI: Siyu Yu

Co PIs: Gang Han, Andrea Roberts

Abstract:

With the spread of COVID-19, highly socially vulnerable communities (which typically live in denser areas and have less access to health care and open space) are facing compounded threats. To fully understand the COVID-19 impact on socially vulnerable populations, this study integrates community vulnerability assessments, public health condition evaluations, population density assessments, and land use pattern data to identify and map spatial hotspots of transference vulnerability – the probability of populations to transfer viruses/diseases during a global outbreak. Using Harris County, TX as a case site, we will assess relationships between COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates with social, public health, and built environment factors to rank transference vulnerability by neighborhood and create an interactive visualized online platform to display the findings and related analytics.

Link: https://t3.tamu.edu/fundedproject

Duration: 2020–2022

Funding Agency: TiCER Pilot Project competition for 2020

Funding Amount: $68,540

PI: Shankararaman Chellam

Co PIs: Deidra Davis, Natalie Johnson, Itza Mendoza-Sanchez

Abstract:

Air pollution is currently the biggest environmental health risk in the world, responsible for about 11% of annual mortality. Ambient particulate matter (PM) is estimated to cause about 3 million deaths per year worldwide and 5–10% of total annual premature mortality in the United States. Paradoxically, even to date, the PM components most harmful to human health have not been conclusively identified, although current evidence points to metals as a leading contributor. For this reason, we propose to rigorously and systematically investigate outdoor PM, its metallic composition, respiratory risk, and associated toxicity mechanisms. We target the Houston Ship Channel given the Principal Investigator’s extensive prior work in this region identifying and quantitatively apportioning myriad anthropogenic PM sources therein. His previously established size segregated metals datasets will be used to estimate respiratory risk facing residents of this heavily industrialized area. An important contribution of our work is that we will “close the loop” by directly disseminating our findings to one of the impacted communities, i.e., members of Furr High School with whom we have already established strong relationships. This knowledge will equip them with the tools needed towards improving their own environment and reducing personal exposure. In addition to quantifying and communicating exposure to particulate metals, a critical facet of our research is to also pursue underlying inhalation toxicity and cellular mechanisms via in vitro testing. Toxicity screening will be performed using primary human pediatric epithelial cells. Hence, our proposed work combines an integrative approach to air pollution and health; analytical chemistry, epidemiology (including risk assessment), toxicological mechanisms, and risk communication. Our overarching goal for this pilot project is to lay the foundation for a strong NIEHS proposal for 2021 submission. Considering the established track-record of the PI in PM sampling and trace element analysis via mass spectrometry, we focus on other tasks to generate innovative preliminary data for our forthcoming proposal. Hence, research will be on quantifying impacts of inhalation exposure on Houstonians’ health, capturing the affected community’s awareness level of air quality and their perceived health risks, and developing an in vitro testing strategy to evaluate children’s unique susceptibility to respiratory effects arising from respiratory intake of particulate metals. Because of budget limitations, in lieu of collecting more PM samples during this pilot study, internet-enabled low-cost but accurate PM monitors will be installed in the high school so that students can directly assess industrial emissions in real-time. This will form the basis of their class projects, assist in their role as environmental ambassadors, and serve as a community engagement connection. To fulfill the project’s goals, a team of early-, mid-, and late-career faculty from three different schools within Texas A&M (Engineering, Public Health, and Architecture) with expertise in size-resolved aerosol sampling, metals characterization, risk assessment, inhalation and developmental toxicology, community engagement, and environmental justice has been assembled to successfully complete the proposed work.

Duration: 2019–2020

Funding Agency: Natural Hazards Center

Funding Amount: $2,000

PI: Maria Watson

Co PIs: Siyu Yu

Abstract:

Moving businesses and residents out of hazardous areas is an important mitigation priority. At the same time, disaster recovery spending is increasing as the frequency and nature of hazards intensifies. Research has suggested that disaster assistance, given its focus on infrastructure replacement, may encourage development in the same hazardous area or prevent recipients from moving through additional debt. This study examines residential and business movement in Galveston County after 2008 Hurricane Ike and 2017 Hurricane Harvey for recipients of post-disaster loans. Through a mixed-methods research design using quantitative data from local and federal agencies, surveys, as well as semi-structured interviews, this study asks whether these loans encourage or discourage residential or business movement out of hazardous areas as well as the factors influencing their location decisions. The result of this work and deeper knowledge on how recovery funding influences adaptive behavior can inform more effective approaches as practitioners reevaluate how federal assistance may conflict with local initiatives.

Duration: 2020–2021

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#2053985)

Funding Amount: $53,832

PI: Maria Watson

Co PIs: Rebekka Dudensing, Michelle Meyer

Graduate Research Assistant: Joy Semien

Abstract:

Reducing the effects of disasters on businesses and nonprofits is growing in importance as disasters are more frequent. However, understanding of disaster impacts and recovery across a variety of organizational types is still relatively limited. For example, while disparities in recovery for organizations owned by women, veterans, or racial minorities have been observed, the underlying mechanisms are not well established. In addition, understanding of how businesses and nonprofits recover from multiple and cascading impacts (such as hurricanes followed by a pandemic followed by another hurricane) is also only beginning to develop. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project extends preliminary research conducted following Hurricane Harvey to examine disaster impacts, including cumulative impacts, and disparate recovery processes associated with the current pandemic and additional coastal storms along the Gulf Coast. Findings will have implications for improved strategies for organizational survival and recovery, provide evidence that can be used for coordinated outreach and educational programs to support organizational planning and adaptation, and enable cross-case research.

This study integrates theory and findings from the disaster recovery literature with a social vulnerability perspective. The research team will geographically and conceptually expand beyond previous surveys and interviews of for-profit and nonprofit organizations after Hurricane Harvey, collecting data on organizational performance during COVID-19 and Hurricane Laura in Beaumont, TX, Port Arthur, TX, and Lake Charles, LA. The study will test how social vulnerability factors affect organizational impacts, survival, and recovery, controlling for resources, organizational characteristics, damage, and adaptive actions. It will also examine how disparities in organizational recovery propagate through multiple events, controlling for resources, organizational characteristics, damage, and adaptive actions. The team is uniquely poised to collect data quickly as it has conducted pre-disaster survey and sample verification in Beaumont and Port Arthur, tested survey methodology and best practices for this region, and has administered a previous multi-hazard survey that can be tailored for this context. This research team will work to gather data quickly in order to minimize survivor bias (i.e., before some of the vulnerable organizations fail and therefore are not represented in the study sample). Results will be relevant to the literature on cumulative disaster impacts and adaptation, social vulnerability, and organizational continuity.

Duration: 2021–2022

Funding Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Funding Amount: $84,967

PI: Maria Watson

Co PIs: Michelle Meyer, Rebekka Dudensing, Joy Semien

Abstract:

The 2020 hurricane season was the most active on record and organizations on the Gulf Coast struggled against the backdrop of the pandemic and incomplete recoveries from previous climate events. Although many communities are facing compounding, concurrent, and recurring disasters, there is limited research on how these complex events impact organizations across different ownership characteristics and geographical contexts. Previous research conducted by this team in the region uncovered disparities in recovery after Hurricane Harvey along owner/manager racial lines; the proposed study will build upon and expand this work both geographically and theoretically. It focuses on several intersectional dimensions of organizational disruption and resilience: the contextual environment of the business and nonprofit in terms of rural/small town versus urban, the socio-economic vulnerability of the organization’s market and service area, and the socio-economic characteristics of the organization’s ownership and management, itself. Using findings from this research and working with our partners at The Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP), Texas SeaGrant, Texas A&M University Agrilife Extension, and the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University, we will prepare and evaluate outreach materials on best practices for small business and nonprofits at the individual business and nonprofit, regional, and programmatic level. Organizations will then apply their knowledge in workshop events where they will develop recovery and continuity plans. The hope is that this research will increase organizationally resilience locally but also provide a research framework that can be more broadly generalized.

Duration: 2021

Funding Agency: PRISE: Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M

Funding Amount: $30,000

PI: Noel Estwick (Prairie View A&M)

Co PIs: Rebekka Dudensing, Michelle Meyer

Undergraduate Students: Daniela Wong, Noelia Rosas, Sarah Judkins

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a tremendous strain on America’s food supply chain. In addition to food injustices, families that struggled to put food on the table pre-pandemic continue to struggle financially and cannot afford to buy food. This research seeks to understand impacts of USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program in limited-resource communities in 8 Texas counties. The faculty, extension personnel, student researchers and community consultant team will work with Mayors, faith-based organizations and other stakeholders to answer the overarching research question “How are the individual

counties carrying out their Farmers to Families Food Box Programs?” The objectives are to: 1) Compare and contrast the Farmers to Families Food Box program in select counties especially variation in urban and rural contexts; 2) Assess limited-resource residents’ experience and perception of the program; and 3) Examine limited-resource producers’ perspectives of the program.

Duration: 2019–2020

Funding Agency: Natural Hazards Center

Funding Amount: $2,000

PI: Maria Watson

Co PIs: Siyu Yu

Abstract:

Moving businesses and residents out of hazardous areas is an important mitigation priority. At the same time, disaster recovery spending is increasing as the frequency and nature of hazards intensifies. Research has suggested that disaster assistance, given its focus on infrastructure replacement, may encourage development in the same hazardous area or prevent recipients from moving through additional debt. This study examines residential and business movement in Galveston County after 2008 Hurricane Ike and 2017 Hurricane Harvey for recipients of post-disaster loans. Through a mixed-methods research design using quantitative data from local and federal agencies, surveys, as well as semi-structured interviews, this study asks whether these loans encourage or discourage residential or business movement out of hazardous areas as well as the factors influencing their location decisions. The result of this work and deeper knowledge on how recovery funding influences adaptive behavior can inform more effective approaches as practitioners reevaluate how federal assistance may conflict with local initiatives.

Duration: 2019–2022

Funding Agency: Texas Sea Grant

Funding Amount: $200,000

PI: Amir Behzadan

Co PIs: Courtney Thompson, Zhe Zhang

Senior Personnel: Michelle Meyer

Graduate Students: Bahareh Alizadeh Kharazi, Diya Li, Julia Hillin

Undergraduate Students: Nathan Young (2020)

Abstract:

Existing flood models do not fully consider expanding development in flood-prone regions, rapid rain accumulation, construction methods and materials, climate change, or population growth. The underlying process of creating these maps is heavily centralized (i.e., authority-oriented) and disproportionately influenced to benefit wealthier, more privileged communities. A 2017 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that only 42% of the total flood map miles in FEMA’s inventory were updated and valid. A major limiting factor in covering neighborhoods and communities using the current flood sensing capabilities is the high cost of sensor acquisition, installation, maintenance, and a lack of skilled operators.

Our work in a Texas Sea Grant-funded project will augment flood management practices in Texas coastal communities through citizen science, artificial intelligence (AI), Spatial Decision Science, and advanced cyberinfrastructure for building resilience communities. Part of this project includes a survey component that asks respondents to 1) share their experiences with flooding and rescue operations in the past;  and 2) what types of information would have helped them while making evacuation decisions. Through integrating the findings of this survey into technology development, our long-term goal is to design a user-inspired flood risk mapping tool for coastal communities.

Duration: 2016–2022

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1638273)

Funding Amount: $2,499,999 (TAMU portion $706,873)

PI: Walter Gillis Peacock

Co PIs: Nathanael Rosenheim, Daniel Goldberg, Jamie Kruse (ECU), Bruce Ellington (CSU), Edwon Chong (CSU), John van der Lindt (CSU), Paulo Gardoni (U of I), Santanu Chaudhuri (U of I), Seyedarmin Tabandeh (U of I)

Abstract:

The US economy and social well-being depend on interdependent critical infrastructure systems (ICISs) such as transportation, energy, water, and food systems. These ICISs shape the country’s ability to meet community needs often successful, but not for all, and are susceptible to disruptions due to extreme natural events. This interplay between normal operation, chronic issues, and disaster-induced challenges is clearly evident when considering food security issues. Food access and affordability are persistent problems for more than 14 percent of Americans in normal times and are greatly exacerbated following disasters. Frameworks for understanding ICIS interdependencies, their interface with social and economic networks in response to natural hazards, and their roles in disaster recovery for vulnerable populations and food security are nascent. The food security of a community is a function of the pre-event vulnerabilities and the resilience of its food distribution network including the vulnerabilities of its infrastructural systems in isolation and their interdependencies. Furthermore, the demands posed by different hazards, the capacity of each physical network and system to respond to these demands, and the interactions between physical and social systems are highly uncertain. Accordingly, risk-informed approaches that can guide decision methods are crucial to characterize demand and impact on a community, to predict community response, and for designing community infrastructure systems that are resilient. Well-integrated decision methods that account for and integrate the performance of different ICISs in response to disasters have broad impacts. First, such methodologies will better frame questions on disaster mitigation and recovery, and will facilitate disaster planning activities and training for various disaster scenarios. Second, they will encourage policies that address chronic and acute food-security issues, balancing the mitigation of vulnerability with the promotion of resiliency. Finally, they will foster a shared language among social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) scientists, computational scientists, and engineers on the causes and characterization of hazards and risks and mitigation solutions. This project will engage a diverse set of students, including women and minorities, and in student-centered learning. It will integrate research and education throughout the project, and effectively disseminate the results. The methodologies developed will be integrated into courses such as Engineering Risk Analysis and Structural Reliability, Disaster Mitigation and Recovery and Planning Methods, and Risk and Regulation and into two NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) summer institutes which blend geography, computer science, health, planning and social science undergraduate students in food security, disparities, and health research projects.

This research will develop a decision platform that integrates computational models of ICISs at different spatial and temporal scales. These computational models will focus on the food distribution networks and include analytics of the socioeconomic causes of vulnerability. The decision platform may be used to examine issues related to reducing the risks associated with extreme hazards while enhancing community resilience with respect to food security. The project brings together three distinct disciplines: Engineering, SBE sciences, and Computer/Computational Sciences. Achieving project goals requires a deep collaboration between these three broad disciplines. Engineering is needed to understand and model the physical components of each sector and their interdependencies. SBE sciences are essential to understand and model food distribution from wholesale to households with a focus on vulnerable populations. Computer and Computational Science are needed to develop comprehensive models representing communities and their infrastructure and are the basis for assessing policy and organizational interventions that lead to greater robustness and resilience. The interdisciplinary nature of this research will also forge new channels of communication through models that integrate social and physical aspects of risk and vulnerability.

Duration: 2016–2018

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1645193)

Funding Amount: $100,000

PI: Nasir Gharaibeh

Co PIs: Philip Berke, Shannon Van Zandt, Jennifer Horney, Michelle Meyer

Graduate Students: Marccus Hendricks

Abstract:

In the pursuit of safe and reliable infrastructure systems, monitoring data are collected to assess the condition, usage, and in-service performance of these systems. For large-scale infrastructure, monitoring data are often collected using a variety of sensor technologies and periodic field inspections. For neighborhood scale infrastructure, however, these data remain limited in both quantity and quality. While participatory data sources provide an opportunity for producing these data, very little is known about how and when to collect valid and reliable participatory data in lieu of, or in addition to, physical measurements. Through support of this award, fundamental research will be pursued to design and test protocols and tools for collecting infrastructure monitoring data at the neighborhood level by volunteer citizen scientists. This early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will contribute to understanding the factors that influence the reliability and validity of citizen-generated infrastructure monitoring data, with focus on stormwater infrastructure. Successful implementation of protocols and tools for collecting infrastructure monitoring data by residents would accelerate the production of high-quality data at the neighborhood level, benefiting multiple stakeholders, including local communities, infrastructure engineers, urban planners, and researchers. This is especially impactful in neighborhoods with socially and physically vulnerable populations, such as those in Houston where this study will take place. This research will advance the scholarly momentum of an interdisciplinary team of investigators from civil engineering, urban planning, sociology, and public health to better understand how and when to engage members of the general public in collecting infrastructure monitoring data.

The questions that guide the design of this study are: (1) What factors influence the reliability and validity of citizen-generated infrastructure monitoring data at the neighborhood level and (2) How can our understanding of these factors be employed to develop protocols and tools for collecting high-quality infrastructure monitoring data by members of the general public? Draft protocols and tools will be designed, tested in field trials, validated, and refined in an iterative process. Neighborhoods in the Houston metropolitan area will be used as the study area, with focus on stormwater infrastructure. The field trials will include the collection of observational data (collected by citizen scientists), measurement-based data (collected by engineering professionals), and feedback data (gathered through workshops and a closing questionnaire). The engineering professionals will use a mobile laser scanning and camera unit to collect the measurement-based data (e.g., location, geometry, and condition of stormwater drainage assets). Through this iterative process, we will identify the methodological issues in citizen science data (as they apply to stormwater infrastructure monitoring) and maximize the fidelity of the protocols and tools. New empirical data, obtained from the field trials, will enable testing hypotheses about the agreement between data collected by citizen scientists (observational dataset) and data collected by professionals (measurement-based dataset), and incorporating the participants perspective in the data collection process (feedback dataset).

Duration: 2019–2022

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1851493)

Funding Amount: $320,431 (TAMU portion $95,842 plus $19,055 Research Experience for Undergraduate Supplement)

PI: Michelle Meyer

Co PIs: Brant Mitchell (LSU), Stuart Nolan (LSU)

Postdoc: Carlee Purdum

Graduate Research Assistants: Kyle Breen (LSU), Romel Fernandez (2020–2021), Arthur Chambers (2020)

Undergraduate Research Assistants: Jackson Pierce (2019–2020), Nathan Young (2019–2021), Sofia Sierra (2020–2021), Adrian Rodriguez (2021), Tyler Eutsler (2021), Abigail Bowers (LSU, 2020–2021), Noah Balbon (LSU, 2021)

Abstract:

In this project, the stability or formalization and growth of volunteer groups and the use of social media in these processes will be investigated. Specifically, processes of conducting volunteer flood rescues, factors that affect immediate decision-making during rescues, decisions about volunteer group development, and use of social media for rescuing and group development will be researched through intense interviewing and participation with rescuers. Disasters are unique opportunities to study social processes, and they are also becoming more frequent social problems. Disasters of recent years have introduced volunteer organizations supported by social media and new technologies. Limited scholarly research has studied this volunteer rescue movement, these volunteers, or these rescue operations. Findings will contribute to scholarly understanding of group formation and development and how this may be affected by new technologies. They also will contribute to public welfare by being integrated in courses such as on emergency management and hazard mitigation and recovery, and by being directly shared with organizations that do rescues as well as the broader emergency management and public communities.
To address the research goal, ethnographic research will be conducted that includes participation with volunteer organizations that conduct rescues, 20–40 interviews with emergency management officials, 30–60 interviews with volunteer rescuers, and 20–30 interviews with persons rescued by civilian volunteers. Over the life of the project, this will involve training and traveling with volunteer organizations as they respond to disasters, such as the three to which these organizations responded in 2018, Hurricanes Florence and Michael and floods in Southeast Texas. Participation will be in three different roles: boat rescuer, dispatcher, and leadership coordination. In addition, available social media data and media articles will be collected and analyzed inductively. GIS technology will be used to analyze available geospatial data on rescue locations, which will be related to hazard data.

Duration: 2019–2022

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1931301)

Funding Amount: $350,000

PI: Nasir Gharaibeh

Co PIs: Francisco Olivera, Lei Zou, Michelle Meyer, Garett Sansom

Abstract:

Flash floods hit with little lead time to warn the public and are of such velocity and force so as to make them one of the most lethal natural hazards (measured by the ratio of fatalities to people affected). The purpose of this project is to better understand why unsafe conditions exist during flash flood events, and how to reduce or eliminate these conditions. The premise is that problems are best solved by correcting their root causes, rather than reacting to their symptoms. Given the locality of flash floods, this approach to disaster research requires finer resolution data than currently exists, a gap this project fills. Such data are needed to understand the complete circumstances leading up to fatalities and injuries and to design effective structural and non-structural risk reduction measures. The new data and model principles created by this project can be used to identify effective structural and non-structural interventions for inclusion in hazard mitigation plans, emergency response plans, and capital improvement plans. This research will advance the scholarly momentum of an interdisciplinary team of investigators from civil engineering, geography, public health, and sociology to improve public safety and community resilience to flash flooding. Hence, the project supports NSF’s mission to promote the progress of science and to advance the nation’s health, prosperity, and welfare by reducing future fatalities from flash flooding.

The goal of this research is to enhance public safety by creating the data and framework for modeling the causal pathways of flash flood fatalities and injuries to inform prevention. The research questions that guide the design of this study are: (1) What are the causal pathways to flash flood fatalities and injuries? and (2) How are communities in susceptible areas preparing for and mitigating against flash floods? The project uses a mixture of data types and research methods to address these questions. Using innovative web technologies, new fine-scale data will be obtained from structured and unstructured data sources on the web on each flash flood event and victim from the past 10 years. The new data will be made available in the public domain, while protecting the anonymity of individual persons and adhering to the terms of data usage set by the original sources.

Duration: 2018–2020

Funding Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through University of Oklahoma

Funding Amount: $156,282

PI: Pamela Plotkin (Texas Sea Grant)

Co PIs: Walter Gillis Peacock, Michelle Meyer

Graduate Student: Joy Semien, Alexander Abuabara, Ryke Moore, Carlo Chunga Pizarro, Melina Matos, and Chandler Wilkins

Undergraduate Students: Ricardo Fernandez, Romel Fernandez, Enrique Perez, Yujie Angela Wang, Monicky Saucedo, and Alondra Rosas.

Abstract:

To gather more in-depth information about how disasters affect organizations, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a study of business disruption following several disasters in 2017. NIST’s coastal resilience initiative focused on study sites in the Carolinas (associated with Carolinas Integrated Sciences & Assessments – CISA) and the western Gulf Coast (associated with Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program – SCIPP). This report describes the research conducted along the western Gulf Coast in the combined study area of Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas.

The goals of this project were to better understand the recovery of organizations in Texas following the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. We sought to answer the following research questions:

RQ 1: What factors impact an organization’s ability to recover?

RQ 2: How do business and nonprofit recovery processes compare?RQ 3: Do socio-vulnerability factors of the organization affect their recovery process?

Duration: 2018–2019

Funding Agency: American Planning Association

Funding Amount: $20,000

PI: Shannon Van Zandt

Co PIs: Michelle Meyer

Graduate Students: Judanne Lennox-Morrison, Abrina Williams, Joy Semien, Siyu Yu

Undergraduate Students: Haley Yelle

Abstract:

Planners bring considerations surrounding land-use, density, and infrastructure development patterns to the forefront of community discussions. Planners are also vital in ensuring that elected officials, community leaders, and a myriad of stakeholders are educated in the necessity of making sound decisions that reduce future community risks. These are skills that planners can bring to bear upon the inherent complexity of disaster recovery management and influence pre- and post-disaster public decision-making, particularly from the perspective of long-term risk reduction.

While there are multiple recovery guidance documents available, few, if any, are designed specifically for planners to harness their education and professional training. Most resources tend to focus on a recovery process without specific guidance on integration and alignment with a community’s network of plans and implementation processes. This research project was designed to generate the evidence base needed to guide planners and planning departments on how to leverage existing planning activities and programs for recovery and resilience, including existing mitigation planning processes. To develop this guidance, the American Planning Association (APA) worked with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University to undertake a research project that would provide the evidence base for guidance to be created. Team members included Shannon Van Zandt, Ph.D. and AICP, Michelle Meyer, Ph.D., Joy Semien (Ph.D. Student), Siyu Yu, Ph.D., Juddane Lennox-Morrison (Masters of Urban Planning Student), Abrina Williams (Masters of Urban Planning Student), Carlee Purdum, Ph.D., and Haley Yelle (Undergraduate Urban Planning Student) from the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center.

Duration: 2019–2022

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1832662)

Funding Amount: $2,000,000

PI: Ali Mostafavi

Co PIs: Bjorn Birgisson, Arnold Vedlitz, Philip Berke, Sierra Woodruff

Abstract:

This Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP) project examines the complex interactions among stakeholders’ social networks, networks of community plans and physical infrastructure networks relevant to flood vulnerability and resilience. By focusing on the interdependencies among flood control, transportation and emergency response infrastructure, the research will advance understanding that can then underpin new approaches to integrating engineering, planning and policy to improve community resilience to hurricane and flooding hazards. This improved understanding can also be useful to communities in planning greater coordination among federal, state, regional and local stakeholders involved in hazard mitigation and infrastructure development planning and policy. This scientific research contribution thus supports NSF’s mission to promote the progress of science and to advance our national welfare with benefits that will reduce future flood impacts.

This project involves interdisciplinary contributions from civil engineering, network science, urban planning and public policy. The project focuses on the interdependencies among flood control, transportation and emergency response infrastructure. The expected contributions are:

1. Fundamental knowledge of the dynamics of stakeholders’ social networks and the influence of these networks on the integration of flood mitigation and infrastructure resilience plans and policies
2. New methods for achieving greater integration across plans and policies based on deeper understanding of infrastructure networks interdependencies
3. New insights into infrastructure network interdependencies, social vulnerability, and hazard exposure on urban spatial structure of flood risk diffusion

The expected methodological and theoretical innovations will be tested in Houston/Harris County using empirical datasets from the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. These contributions can transform the flood resilience planning and policy processes in interdependent infrastructure systems in coastal urban areas. The project will also be the source of strong multidisciplinary training for next generation researchers in engineering, science and policy through education and outreach activities that integrate the research findings into interdisciplinary educational programs, engage students from underrepresented groups in science and engineering and conduct a policy workshop to disseminate the findings to a broader audience.

Duration: 2018–2021

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1825123)

Funding Amount: $420,450 (TAMU portion $205,622.00)

PI: Sierra Woodruff

Co PI: Bryce Hannibal, Sara Meerow (ASU)

Abstract:

Costs from flooding continue to rise because of the isolation in most communities of hazard mitigation planning from land use planning processes. Resilience planning that recognizes the interdependencies between disasters and the constant stressors cities face, such as poverty, aging infrastructure and social inequity, has emerged as a new framework to coordinate flood mitigation and planning. This project examines how resilience is translated into practice, whether it fosters collaboration across city departments and stakeholders and if this collaboration leads to more integrative plans that reduce vulnerability to flooding. New knowledge will be acquired regarding how resilience planning shapes urban governance at a time when flooding poses an increasingly serious threat for communities. This scientific research contribution thus supports NSF’s mission to promote the progress of science and to advance our national welfare. In this case, the benefits will be insights for local practitioners about the governance of resilience efforts and for federal, state and non-profit officials on how to foster local resilience. The project will educate future resilience planning professionals through the development and implementation of educational case studies and participation of graduate students throughout the research process.

By combining surveys, interviews, social network analysis and plan evaluation in four cities at the forefront of resilience planning, this study provides critical and timely information about the governance structures and planning processes that address long-term flood risk. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to:

1. Examine how public, private, and community actors who are engaged in flood mitigation efforts interpret and operationalize the concept of resilience
2. Characterize inter-organizational connectivity around flood resilience planning by analyzing urban governance networks with social network analysis
3. Assess and compare the quality, consistency, and level of integration among different types of city plans that impact flooding
4. Evaluate the influence of different conceptualizations of resilience and governance network structures on cities? plans and policies

The project will combine social network analysis with assessment of plan quality and integration. By comparing plan quality and integration with measures of network collaboration, results will address the widely cited claim that collaboration leads to better and more integrated plans that are more likely to reduce flood damages.

Duration: 2018–2021

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1826322)

Funding Amount: $667,105 (TAMU portion $227,394.00)

PI: Shannon Van Zandt

Co PIs: Andrew Rumbach, Mary  Sullivan (UC-Denver), Carrie  Makarewicz (UC-Denver)

Abstract:

Hundreds of mobile home parks located in diverse geographic, political and demographic parts of the Houston area were flooded during Hurricane Harvey. This project examines the damage and tracks the recovery of those parks over time using a combination of geospatial, qualitative and quantitative research methods. This research design will identify the reasons for differential damage and recovery across parks. This scientific research contribution thus supports NSF’s mission to promote the progress of science and to advance our national welfare. In this case, the benefits will be new knowledge about the vulnerability of the mobile home parks to natural hazards and methods to mitigate risks. The project provides training and mentoring for a diverse group of student researchers, and its findings will be incorporated into graduate education programs. The study’s methodology, modeling framework and key findings will be made available to policy-makers and planning practitioners through a mobile home park vulnerability assessment guide.

The study will identify and analyze factors that influence post-disaster mobile home park recovery, defined by park closure, rebuilding, housing loss and change in assessed value. A geospatial database of all Houston mobile home parks that experienced flooding will be created to analyze exposure. It will be populated with data from a recovery survey of park owners at one and two years after Harvey and spatial, regulatory and socio-demographic information on parks. Interviews with mobile home park owners, resident leadership and local officials, and analysis of codes and plans will be conducted in 15–20 mobile home parks strategically sampled from the study population. Indicators representing the factors that enable or impede park recovery will be tested across the study population using quantitative modeling techniques. Results will be interpreted and disseminated to provide a better understanding of vulnerability in mobile home parks, a critical though understudied component of the U.S. affordable housing supply.

Duration: 2017–2019

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1760258)

Funding Amount: $188,873

PI: Ali Mostafavi

Co PIs: Xia Hu, Bjorn Birgisson, Arnold Vedlitz, Philip Berke

Abstract:

Cities have a variety of infrastructure systems in place to deal with emergencies and extreme events like hurricanes. The effectiveness and efficiency with which these systems perform is, in part, a function of the severity and characteristics of the specific event relative to the capacities of the individual systems, but also the extent to which these infrastructure systems effectively coordinate. In this Rapid Response Research Grant (RAPID), the Principal Investigators will collect time-sensitive data on the performance of Houston’s flood protection, emergency management, and transportation infrastructure systems and processes in Hurricane Harvey. These data will be used to help identify what inter-organizational planning, communication, and coordination risks exist, what policies and strategies yield network resilience, and which capital investment decisions are optimal. These findings will suggest ways to improve decision-making processes, coordination, and network planning among infrastructure designers and operators, city planners and emergency managers based on better understanding of the underlying interdependencies among infrastructure systems and processes. Hence, the expected results will have significant societal benefits that will help improve public safety and reduce economic losses from extreme weather events.

The specific tasks to be undertaken are to:

1. Map, model, and analyze decision-making processes and human system networks in interdependent infrastructure systems to uncover inter-organizational risks
2. Specify and characterize infrastructure disruptions and cascading failures and their relationships with inter-organizational risks and decision-making processes
3. Examine households? physical and social vulnerabilities influenced by inter-organizational risks and infrastructure disruptions and cascading failures

These tasks will be accomplished through in-depth interviews and participatory workshops with stakeholders and decision-makers (e.g., Flood Control District, Army Corps, City Managers, Infrastructure Engineers, Planners and Utility Companies). Collection of data to assess interdependencies and the subsequent impacts caused by failures in critical infrastructure and a household survey to determine the impacts of infrastructure failures on households in two to three areas in Houston.

Duration: 2014–2016

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1434957)

Funding Amount: $221,076

PI: Michelle Meyer (Sociology)

Co PIs: Walter Gillis Peacock, Shannon Van Zandt, David Bierling, John Cooper Jr.

Abstract:

Long-term recovery is the least theorized and studied stage of disasters. Yet, in the past decade, large disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina (2005), Rita (2005), Ike (2008), and Sandy (2012), and smaller but still destructive disasters such as wildfires in Texas (2011) and Colorado (2013), flooding of the Mississippi River (2011), and even technological disasters (West, TX 2013) have left numerous communities struggling with post-disaster planning, unequal and partial recovery outcomes, and recovery efforts that fail to reduce pre-disaster vulnerabilities. Increasing disaster frequencies and impacts mean more communities will struggle, often with little local experience in managing the difficult processes of achieving sustainable and resilient recovery. This research focuses on disaster recovery across different communities to build the knowledge-base and best practices that will help other communities prepare for and plan for disaster recovery. The results of this research will support efforts by local governments and nongovernmental organizations to develop recovery frameworks and plans that will speed disaster recovery and improve fiscal efficiency.

To accomplish these goals, this research project involves in-depth study and extensive comparative analysis of the structures and networks of groups and organizations involved in disaster recovery efforts across six different communities that recently experienced disasters: Granbury, Texas (2013, tornado), West, Texas (2013, industrial facility explosion), Marion County, Texas (2011, wildfire), Bastrop County, Texas (2011, wildfire), Galveston, Texas (2008, Hurricane Ike), Brownsville, Texas (2008, Hurricane Dolly). Governmental and nongovernmental collaboration during recovery is important, yet which types of collaboration work best for recovery are little understood. Most disaster-related studies on organizational collaboration focus on response and emergency management agencies not on charities and community organizations that work on long-term recovery for two to ten years following a disaster. For each of the case locations, the researchers will conduct in-person interviews with organizational leaders, observe recovery committee and community meetings, document recovery events, and analyze community reconstruction and rehabilitation. This approach will provide rich information that will enable the team to compare and contrast the practices used in the different cases and develop a model of disaster recovery organizational networks. This data will allow the researchers to evaluate the organizational coordination in disaster recovery and describe interactions between various levels of government (local, regional, state, and national). Based on the project outcomes, the researchers will identify promising practices and lessons learned which can be utilized by other communities that are engaged in pre-disaster or post-disaster recovery planning.

Duration: 2014–2016

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1359240)

Funding Amount: $269,997

PI: Mark Fossett (Sociology)

Co PIs: Walter Gillis Peacock

Abstract:

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program at Texas A & M University aims to attract undergraduates to careers in social science research and to increase the participation of talented individuals from under-represented groups (e.g., African Americans and Latinos). The Departments of Sociology (SOCI) and Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning (LAUP) collaborate to host this REU Site that brings undergraduate students majoring in sociology, planning, and related disciplines to participate in an eight-week Summer Institute focusing on Studies of Inequality and Social Vulnerability. The primary student activities are participating in a faculty-supervised research project leading to a research paper and presentation at a professional conference, while supporting activities include a seminar providing grounding in theory, data, and methods relevant for research projects; two research field trips; and workshops on opportunities for graduate education and research careers. The site theme “Studies of Social Inequality and Social Vulnerability” reflects the expertise of the researcher mentors from SOCI & LAUP and is proven effective in attracting applications from African American and Latino students. The eight research mentors have strong research and mentoring credentials and prior experience in overseeing successful NSF REU and SBE programs.

Students are incorporated into the ongoing research programs of the mentors and assigned individual research projects. Selected examples include: documenting disparities in socioeconomic, residential, and health outcomes by race and poverty-income status; assessing differential vulnerability of social groups to natural and technical hazards; assessing how hazards (e.g., hurricanes and floods) differentially impact ethnic minority, low income, and other vulnerable populations; investigating correlates, causes, and consequences of residential segregation by race and income; conducting historical case studies of the evolution of residential segregation over time in selected cities; and assessing variation in recovery from the impact of hazards. Diversity goals will be served by practices used in prior successful REU Sites. These include working closely with faculty at minority serving universities that have limited STEM student research opportunities to identify promising, motivated students with interests in graduate education and research careers. The proposed REU Site draws on the faculty expertise and institutional resources of two nationally prominent doctoral departments to provide students intensive research experiences based on participating in ongoing research projects, some funded by NSF, relating to social inequality and social vulnerability. Students undertake individual projects directed by faculty mentors and designed to be feasible over the summer institute and within the capabilities of advanced undergraduates. Although the immediate contributions of student projects to science could be modest, the larger intellectual merit is enhancing student research capabilities, understanding of and interest in research, and odds of going on to graduate education and research careers.

Duration: 2013–2015

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1348070)

Funding Amount: $43,893

PI: Michelle Meyer

Co PIs: Shannon Van Zandt, Walter Gillis Peacock, David Bierling, and John Cooper

Abstract:

The purpose of this Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant is to explore community and resident post-disaster recovery in two small US towns. Both towns experienced disasters in the spring of 2013, but one town experienced a natural disaster while the other town had a technological disaster. To understand how disaster recovery differs based on the type of disaster, we are comparing the immediate recovery periods in each town. Often researchers compare disaster effects across very different communities or across different time periods. Our research takes advantage of a rare opportunity to compare disaster recovery in communities that are similar in size, location, and cultural traits but faced different disasters at about the same time. We are gathering data from community leaders and residents in both towns to address topics important to disaster recovery, including post-disaster community planning, community-based recovery activities, and residents’ rebuilding or relocating decisions and efforts.

Although previous research has improved what people know about disasters, how communities recover from them, and what makes communities resilient, there is still a lot to learn. The results of our research will help other communities as they plan for the disasters they face. This research responds directly to efforts by US Federal and state governments to increase the disaster resilience of local communities. Communities across the country face the risk of both types of disaster. Man-made disasters, such as industrial accidents, explosions, or chemical leaks, are a risk for any community that has hazardous facilities located near homes and businesses. Natural disasters, such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, regularly occur across the country. Based on what is learned in this project, recommendations will be made about how other local communities can increase their resilience and be better able to recover from disasters when they do occur.

Duration: 2011–2015

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (#1061410)

Funding Amount: $300,000

PI: Mark Fossett (Sociology)

Co PIs: Dudley Poston (Sociology), Simon Sheather (Statistics), Walter Gillis Peacock (Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center), Rogelio Saenz (UT-San Antonio)

Abstract:

This award provides start-up funding for the establishment of a Research Data Center located in the Texas A&M University Research Park in College Station. A consortium of universities, including Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M University System, the University of Texas at Austin, and Baylor University, will partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to establish and operate the Texas Census Research Data Center (TXCRDC). The TXCRDC will house a secure, state-of-the art computing facility to provide researchers in the surrounding multi-state region access to confidential data files available only through the national network of Census Research Data Centers. By providing access confidential federal data, the TXCRDC will enhance the research capabilities and quality of projects that can be undertaken by researchers in Texas and the surrounding area.

As one of only a dozen such facilities in the nation, the TXCRDC will serve the needs of a broad, interdisciplinary research community for the purposes of conducting a mix of basic science research and policy research. Research projects conducted in the TXCRDC will involve many dozens of researchers drawn from a variety of scientific disciplines. Projects will address a diverse range of topics including, but not limited to the following: business and management policy; health sciences and health policy; immigration, migration and population distribution and change; urban and regional planning; engineering and social impact analysis; planning for hazards and disasters and assessment of hazards impact and recovery; transportation science and transportation planning and policy; and environmental and energy policies. The center also will provide direct benefits to the federal statistical agencies by enhancing the quality and value of their data and statistical systems.

Duration: October 2012 – September 2016

Funding Agency: Division of Information & Intelligent Systems (IIS)

Funding Amount: $319,125/4 years

PI: Michael Lindell

Co-PI: Carla Prater

Abstract:

The goal of this collaborative project (1212806, Ross T. Whitaker, University of Utah; 1212501, Donald H. House, Clemson University; 1212577, Mary Hegarty, University of California-Santa Barbara; 1212790, Michael K. Lindell, Texas A&M University Main Campus) is to establish the computational and cognitive foundations for capturing and conveying the uncertainty associated with predictive simulations, so that software tools for visualizing these forecasts can accurately and effectively present this information about to a wide range of users. Three demonstration applications are closely integrated into the research plan: one in air quality management, a second in wildfire hazard management, and a third in hurricane evacuation management. This project is the first large-scale effort to consider the visualization of uncertainty in a systematic, end-to-end manner, with the goal of developing a general set of principles as well as a set of tools for accurately and effectively conveying the appropriate level of uncertainties for a range of decision-making processes of national importance.

The primary impact of this work will be methods and tools for conveying the results of predictive simulations and their associated uncertainties, resulting in better informed public policy decisions in situations that rely on such forecasts. Scientific contributions are expected in the areas of simulation and uncertainty quantification, visualization, perception and cognition, and decision making in the presence of uncertainty. Results will be broadly disseminated in a variety of ways across a wide range of academic disciplines and application areas, and will be available at the project Web site (http://visunc.sci.utah.edu). The multidisciplinary nature of the research and the close integration of the participating research groups will provide a unique educational environment for graduate students and other trainees, while also broadening the participation in computer science beyond traditional boundaries.

Duration: September 2012 – August 2015

Funding Agency: Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI)

Funding Amount: $440,000/3 years

PI: Walter G. Peacock

Co-PI: Shannon Van Zandt and Himanshu Grover

Abstract:

The increasing numbers of jurisdictions participating in hazard mitigation planning activities has not guaranteed the implementation of mitigation strategies and practices at the local level. While several recent studies suggest a disconnection between mitigation planning and practice, little is known about the actual adoption and usage of mitigation practice by local jurisdictions. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate mitigation policy practices at the local level.  The study specifically seeks to: a) Examine the adoption and the implementation of broad-based hazard mitigation policies that can enhance hazard mitigation within local jurisdictions (counties and municipalities) along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal; b) Examine the influence of local capacity and commitment in the adoption and extent of hazard mitigation regulations, policies, and strategies; and c) Focus on the broader socio-political ecology for planning practice by examining the consequences of factors on various jurisdictional mitigation practices and profiles. This project will provide an assessment of the effectiveness of federal policy designed to improve mitigation, as well as direction for improving such policies through the assessment of factors related to implementation, including the consistency of actions at different jurisdictional levels, as well as the commitment and capacity of local jurisdictions to act.  Broad dissemination to both academic and practitioner audiences through the development of a website and publication of best mitigation practices and model ordinances promises the return of the findings to the audiences who may best benefit from them. The findings of this research will have a direct bearing on the content of educational activities, directly influencing the broader planning community.

Duration: October 2012 – September 2016

Funding Agency: Division of Information & Intelligent Systems (IIS)

Funding Amount: $319,125/4 years

PI: Michael Lindell

Co-PI: Carla Prater

Abstract:

The goal of this collaborative project (1212806, Ross T. Whitaker, University of Utah; 1212501, Donald H. House, Clemson University; 1212577, Mary Hegarty, University of California-Santa Barbara; 1212790, Michael K. Lindell, Texas A&M University Main Campus) is to establish the computational and cognitive foundations for capturing and conveying the uncertainty associated with predictive simulations, so that software tools for visualizing these forecasts can accurately and effectively present this information about to a wide range of users. Three demonstration applications are closely integrated into the research plan: one in air quality management, a second in wildfire hazard management, and a third in hurricane evacuation management. This project is the first large-scale effort to consider the visualization of uncertainty in a systematic, end-to-end manner, with the goal of developing a general set of principles as well as a set of tools for accurately and effectively conveying the appropriate level of uncertainties for a range of decision-making processes of national importance.

The primary impact of this work will be methods and tools for conveying the results of predictive simulations and their associated uncertainties, resulting in better informed public policy decisions in situations that rely on such forecasts. Scientific contributions are expected in the areas of simulation and uncertainty quantification, visualization, perception and cognition, and decision making in the presence of uncertainty. Results will be broadly disseminated in a variety of ways across a wide range of academic disciplines and application areas, and will be available at the project Web site (http://visunc.sci.utah.edu). The multidisciplinary nature of the research and the close integration of the participating research groups will provide a unique educational environment for graduate students and other trainees, while also broadening the participation in computer science beyond traditional boundaries.

Duration: August 2011 – July 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)

Funding Amount: $85751/2 years

PI: Walter G. Peacock

Co-PI: Gregory Tripoli and Sharon Wood

Abstract:

Despite significant advancement in our understanding of natural hazards and disasters within specific scientific disciplines, the United States continues to experience increasing losses. There is much evidence to suggest that our communities are becoming more vulnerable and less disaster resilient. The scientific consensus is that disasters result from the interaction between physical, built, and social systems and yet the science is generally funded and conducted within disciplinary areas. To explicitly promote and advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical, social and engineering processes associated with natural and technological hazards, the proposed project will conduct an interdisciplinary workshop of leading natural hazard and disaster researchers to identify the scientific advances from new cross-directorate activities focused on disaster resilience, vulnerability, and risk reduction. The proposed workshop will draw together leading hazard and disaster researchers from engineering, geosciences, and social, behavioral and economic sciences to provide input to the National Science Foundation about the nature, goals, and structures of new activities. The workshop will take steps toward the development of a framework for such a cross-disciplinary program. The framework will identify the core research themes and research questions related to resiliency, vulnerability, and risk reduction. Some key issues to be addressed include: 1) the identification of interdisciplinary research agendas involving engineering, geoscience, and social, behavioral and economic sciences and 2) the potential need for new research and data collection approaches to enhance longitudinal research capable of modeling and monitoring processes associated with changes in resiliency, vulnerability, and risk perceptions. The workshop will be held at the National Science Foundation in early June of 2011.

Duration: September 2011 – August 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI)

Funding Amount: $318,661/2 years

PI: Samuel Brody

Co-PI: Michael Lindell and Wesley Highfield

Abstract:

This project examines the effectives of the 100-year floodplain in predicting property damages from floods and offers improved criteria for assessing risk of inundation in low-lying coastal areas. As flood losses continue to increase in the United States, recent evidence suggests that the 100-year floodplain (the primary marker of flood risk and mitigation) is neither accurate nor sufficient in guiding communities and household decisions to mitigate the adverse impacts of floods. The inability of the floodplain designation to effectively capture the likelihood of property loss has left potentially millions of property owners unaware of the flood risk and has made it more difficult for local decision makers to ensure community development occurs in a resilient manner. First, the record of insured property damage at the household level from 2000-2009 will be spatially examined for a sample of coastal counties along the Gulf of Mexico. Second, statistical models to predict insured property damage from floods will be analyzed using proximity and built environment measures not traditionally used to determine floodplain boundaries. Finally, a survey will be conducted of households claiming losses both in and out of the floodplain to understand the perceptions of flood risks and motivations to mitigate their potential adverse impacts.

This research will provide important information to decision makers on how to implement more precise strategies to reduce the costs of floods at the local level. An improved understanding of flood risk will enable localities to better protect themselves against loss of property and lives in coastal areas. Research findings will also help individuals living outside the floodplain, but still at high risk for flood damages reduce the chances they will experience devastating losses in the future. To this end, a major part of the research project will be to deliver findings that can be easily accessed and understood by both public officials and local residents. First, data on flood loss and areas of risk will be integrated with an existing web-based GIS system that currently serves as a technical assistance and outreach tool. Second, local neighborhoods that have become hotspots of flood loss will be worked with to increase awareness of the problem and provide options for reducing future loss. Third, results from the study will be brought into the classroom as part of graduate and undergraduate studies across two college campuses. These approaches will ensure the research findings assist local governments and individual households on how to better reduce the negative impacts of coastal flooding in the US.

Duration: August 2011 – July 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI)

Funding Amount: $44,989/2 years

PI: Samuel Brody

Co-PI: Carla Prater

Abstract:

A substantial portion of the US population at risk from earthquakes lives and works in structures that are likely to experience partial or complete collapse in the event of a major earthquake. There is no technology available that provides forewarning of local earthquakes, so people’s immediate response to earthquake shaking is very likely to determine whether they survive the event. Unfortunately, the research literature on people’s immediate response to earthquake shaking is quite small in comparison to the literature on responses to tornadoes or hurricanes or even the literature on pre-impact seismic hazard adjustments. In part, this is because major earthquakes are rare events in the US so there are few opportunities to study them. This makes it especially important to collaborate with researchers in New Zealand and Japan to examine their residents? immediate responses to the recent earthquakes in Christchurch and Tohoku.

The proposed project will send questionnaires to 1200 residents in areas stricken by the Christchurch and Tohoku earthquakes. Using our standard mail survey procedures, we expect to get a response rate in the range of 30-50%. This project will extend the American investigators? recent research on the earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa by documenting people’s behavioral response during the earthquake shaking and all of the actions they took during the next half hour after the shaking stopped. In addition, we will collect data and conduct analyses of the effects of physical context (e.g., location in open spaces, vehicles, and buildings of various types) and social context (e.g., alone, with children, with known adults, or with adult strangers), previous earthquake experience (e.g., damage or casualties), hazard education (e.g., meetings or brochures), and household emergency preparedness (e.g., emergency plan, emergency kit, battery radio) on people’s behavioral responses. A major contribution of this study will be to assess the effects of people’s immediate emotional reactions on their behavioral responses. Although people’s emotional reactions are likely to have a significant effect on their behavior, this class of variables has been almost completely ignored in previous research on earthquake response and has been studied inadequately even in the few cases when it has been addressed.

Duration: September 2010 – August 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI)

Funding Amount: $102,715/3 years

PI: Yu Xiao

Abstract:

This research project will use the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake – which affected 46 million people in western China, caused over 88,000 deaths, and paralyzed the economy of a large part of Sichuan province – to answer the following question: What can government do to ensure that post-disaster recovery is fast, fair, efficient, and sustainable? Managing reconstruction following catastrophic disasters is especially challenging, because of the pressure to rebuild everything in a short time. An effective recovery process can help minimize the long-term effects of a disaster on a community. To accomplish its goal, this project will study the recovery planning and management strategies used at national, provincial, and local levels following the Wenchuan earthquake. It will also survey households to find out about the actual results of the Chinese recovery policies. A bilingual team of researchers will meet with officials and collect recovery documents from all three levels of government, and the household survey will be conducted by Chinese university students.

This research will greatly improve our understanding of recovery management after catastrophic disasters. In order to gain a deep understanding of post-disaster recovery, it is necessary to study events in a variety of settings. A detailed study of the Chinese style of recovery management, in the current era of rapid change in China, will help to broaden our understanding of post-catastrophe recovery management processes. In addition, the Chinese strategy includes some unique aspects that may be worth emulating or adapting to U.S. situations. An important aspect of this project is the research exchange and mutual learning about post-disaster recovery in China and the U.S. Researchers will work closely with Chinese colleagues in designing and executing the field research in China. The Chinese colleagues will have the opportunity to travel to the U.S. to learn about post-disaster recovery policies. The team’s previous experiences in studying disaster recovery in other places indicate that this exchange will lead to continued collaboration that will advance the practice of recovery management in both countries. Furthermore, because members of the research team are involved in U.S. recovery practice and policy, the results of the research will influence future U.S. approaches to disaster recovery planning and management.

Duration: 2011–2012

Funding Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Science & Technology

Funding Amount: $275,000

PI: Sherry Bame

Co-PI: Linda Daily & Tino Paz

Duration: September 2009 – August 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI)

Funding Amount: $374,036/4 years

PI: Shannon Van Zandt

Co-PI: Walter Peacock, Samuel Brody, Wesley Highfield, and Yu Xiao

Abstract:

This research builds upon several existing research initiatives along the Texas coast to provide a “living laboratory” for examining community recovery and resilience after a disaster. The Texas coast is quickly becoming the fastest growing area in the United States, exposing potentially millions more people to the adverse impacts of meteorologically-based disasters. Most recently, Hurricane Ike made landfall overnight on September 12, 2008 near Galveston, Texas. Prior to Hurricane Ike, the Texas Coastal Communities Planning Atlas documented the physical, environmental, regulatory, and social development patterns present along the Texas Coast (see coastalatlas.tamug.edu). Data collection under NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) CMMI-0901605 provided immediate data on impact, dislocation, and early repair and rebuilding decisions. These data provide baseline measures for the proposed research measuring community recovery at multiple scales over a two-year period. Using the original sample, the researchers will establish a series of panel studies of households, housing units, business owners, businesses, and business structures to track recovery trajectories and adaptive learning. A geo-coded parcel-level dataset allows us to aggregate units to draw conclusions at multiple scales. In addition, the researchers will, through participatory observation analysis, qualitative interviews, and documentary analysis, track policy changes by county and city governments to assess adaptive management and social learning.

The disaster research community has called for increasingly systematic and quantitative approaches to modeling the impacts and recovery processes following a disaster, with greater attention to measuring recovery at multiple levels, to better model community resilience. Systematic identification of the key decisions made by public authorities regarding disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation planning and policy development is also needed to assess a critical dimension of resiliency associated with adaptive learning. The synergy of this research with existing projects provides the ability to do just that – to quantitatively model the dynamics of the built, regulatory, and social environment from pre-hazard event to community response, learning, and recovery – each of which are key dimensions in resilience. Findings from this research will leverage existing outreach tools to further knowledge that will enable local communities and professionals involved in the design, regulation, and management of the built and natural environments to construct communities that are more socially and physically resilient.

Duration: July 2011 – June 2014

Funding Agency: Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)

Funding Amount: $300,000/3 years

PI: Mark Fossett

Co-PI: Walter G. Peacock, Dudley Poston, Simon Sheather, and Rogelio Saenz

Abstract:

This award provides start-up funding for the establishment of a Research Data Center located in the Texas A&M University Research Park in College Station.  A consortium of universities, including Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M University System, the University of Texas at Austin, and Baylor University, will partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to establish and operate the Texas Census Research Data Center (TXCRDC).  The TXCRDC will house a secure, state-of-the art computing facility to provide researchers in the surrounding multi-state region access to confidential data files available only through the national network of Census Research Data Centers.  By providing access confidential federal data, the TXCRDC will enhance the research capabilities and quality of projects that can be undertaken by researchers in Texas and the surrounding area. As one of only a dozen such facilities in the nation, the TXCRDC will serve the needs of a broad, interdisciplinary research community for the purposes of conducting a mix of basic science research and policy research.  Research projects conducted in the TXCRDC will involve many dozens of researchers drawn from a variety of scientific disciplines.  Projects will address a diverse range of topics including, but not limited to the following: business and management policy; health sciences and health policy; immigration, migration and population distribution and change; urban and regional planning; engineering and social impact analysis; planning for hazards and disasters and assessment of hazards impact and recovery; transportation science and transportation planning and policy; and environmental and energy policies.  The center also will provide direct benefits to the federal statistical agencies by enhancing the quality and value of their data and statistical systems.

Duration: February 2009 – January 2013

Funding Agency: Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)

Funding Amount: $231,732/4 years

PI: Michael Lindell

Co-PI: Carla Prater

Abstract: The past 30 years have seen major advances in many aspects of hurricane forecasting, but there has been little systematic research on the way coastal populations interpret the weather information that is communicated to them. To date, most evaluations of hurricane information have comprised reaction criteria (asking whether potential users like a display) rather than learning (testing whether users understand a display) or performance (whether a display changes users? decisions) criteria. However, there is a growing body of anecdotal evidence that many people misunderstand the displays meteorologists are providing. To better understand how people interpret hurricane forecasts and the uncertainties in those forecasts, this research will systematically examine the cognitive processes involved in hurricane tracking by conducting an evaluation of existing and novel hurricane information displays. The first task will assess the ways in which users interpret three basic elements of storm track information?the trailing track (where the storm has been), the forecast track (where it is most likely to go), and track uncertainty (how likely it is to deviate from the forecast track). Participants in different experimental conditions will observe simulated hurricanes described by these three basic elements. Some participants will be given information about only one basic element (e.g., forecast track only), others will be given information about two basic elements in combination (e.g., forecast track and uncertainty cone), and some will be given information about all three basic elements. By comparing participants in these information conditions, the research team will be able to gain insight into how each of the three basic elements affects people?s expectations about storm tracks over time. The second task will focus on the third basic element of hurricane track information (track uncertainty) by comparing a conventional uncertainty cone with five alternative track uncertainty displays?numeric probabilities, color-coded probabilities, terrain coded probabilities, arrow glyphs, and dynamic tracks. Comparing the data from these six information conditions will allow us to determine if any of the alternative displays provides a better way of conveying track uncertainty. Finally, the third task will use the findings from the first two tasks to design and evaluate new ways of visualizing storm information.

The proposed research will provide a rigorous assessment of the cognitive processes involved in hurricane tracking. Accordingly, it has implications for the cognitive psychology (especially judgment and decision making) of complex dynamic tasks. In addition, the project will have implications for instruction because there is very little research that addresses the problems of training adults to perform rarely performed, but critical, judgment tasks such as hurricane tracking. The project will provide meteorologists with a better understanding of the ways in which people interpret hurricane forecasts and the uncertainties in those forecasts. This improved understanding will allow them to communicate more effectively with coastal populations and reduce the probability that lives will be lost in hurricanes that deviate from their forecast tracks.

Duration: 2008–2013

Funding Agency: Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Funding Amount: $750,000/3 years

PI: Sherry I. Bame

Co-PI: Kay Parker, Vice President, United Way Brazos Valley

Collaborator: Doug Wunneburger

Students Employed: Robyn Bell, Tasha Davis, Aatmaja Desai, Dayna Finley, Andrew Garza, Abha Grover, Erin Harrison, Tiffany Kleb, Jee Young Lee, Kay Parker, Courtney Payne, Ashley Shaw

Abstract:

Unmet community needs for evacuation, mitigation and recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be determined by analyzing the Texas 2-1-1 information & referral (I&R) data. 2-1-1 is a nationally designated phone number for non-emergency needs equivalent to 9-1-1 for emergency needs. The Texas 2-1-1 Network is comprised of 25 regions (+1 for emergencies) networked State-wide for community resource databases. The 2-1-1 caller data were collected by the Texas 2-1-1 regional programs during 2005 as they provided I&R services to their communities and to the evacuees hosted for Katrina-Rita then stored by the Texas I&R Network headquarters, Texas Health & Human Services Commission. The project will be conducted in three phases: 1) coding, cleaning & merging tertiary 2-1-1 data from 26 Texas 2-1-1 I&R regional programs (year 1); 2) analyses describing unmet needs over time and by location (year 2); 3) developing a template for 2-1-1 “real-time” analysis for emergency management use (year 3). The outcome will be the first analysis of this magnitude and scope (> 1.5 million cases in Texas) of unmet disaster-related needs over time and location state-wide. The potential application of the findings and the methods using existing 2-1-1 data will be an ability to identify unmet community needs for health and social service programs to more accurately mobilize resources to high-risk populations during preparation, evacuation, mitigation, and recovery phases of disasters.

Duration: 2008–2010

Funding Agency: National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sea Grant Award

Funding Amount: $291,274

PI: Samuel D. Brody

Co-PI: Walter Peacock, Doug Wunneburger, Forster Ndubisi, June Martin

Students Employed: Himanshu Grover, Anita Hollmann

Abstract:

This project develops a coastal communities planning atlas to help local jurisdictions in Texas understand the implications of development decisions and plan appropriately for the future. It will provide an easily accessible, graphically represented, interactive database on environmental, hazard, and land use related issues for local communities. Specifically, the project will create an Internet-based spatial decision support system that will allow users to identify and visualize critical hotspots related to environmental degradation, natural hazard risks, and significant changes in land use patterns. In addition, users will be able to query data and create custom maps based on multiple development scenarios. Communities will be able to use this educational tool to guide future decisions on growth in a sustainable manner such that the need for economic development is balanced with priorities associated with environmental protection and human health, safety, and welfare. The system will also help address important research questions related to where future growth will occur in the Texas coastal zone, the impacts of this growth, and the usefulness of WebGIS in facilitating sustainable planning.

Duration: 2008–2009

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Funding Amount: $144,671

PI: Shannon Van Zandt

Students Employed:

Dustin Henry, Amie Hufton (TAMUG), Gabe Burns, Cristin Burton, Anita Hollmann, Jade Huang, Chris Hung, Jung Eun Kang, Angie Lehnert, Courtney Payne, Linda Salzar, Susan White, Hao-Che Wu, Meng Xue, Lijing Zhou, Ashley Estep (TAMUG), Mary Beth Trevino (TAMUG)

Abstract:

The susceptibility of a community to social and physical impacts from disasters is an important component of creating resilient communities that are able to respond effectively to hazard events and recover quickly after impact. Characteristics of the built, natural and social environment may exacerbate or mitigate such vulnerability and impede or facilitate the ability of residents and businesses to recover. The research project examines the impact of urban development patterns and social vulnerability on impact, dislocation, and early repair and rebuilding decisions which are critical for community resilience.

Duration: 2006–2009

Funding Agency: National Park Service (NPS), Cooperative Agreement

Funding Amount: $378,946

PI: Samuel D. Brody

Co-PI: Walter Peacock, Doug Wunneburger, Forster Ndubisi

Research Assoc: Wesley Highfield

Students Employed: Valerie Miller, Darmawan Psodjo

Abstract:

The objective of this project is to develop an “early warning” system for planned or permitted changes in land use occurring outside the national parks of the Gulf Coast Network (GULN). The system will compile publicly available information about changes in land use and provide that information to the park staff in a format that is geographically linked, easy to use, and able to be frequently updated. This will be accomplished by mapping permits that affect properties adjacent to the Park on a continual basis and delivering this information as maps to park managers. Park staff will then have the option to participate in, comment on, or respond internally to any actions they deem appropriate. The intent is to give park managers the information needed to plan accordingly for upcoming changes in land use near the park.

Duration: 2007–2009

Funding Agency: National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Coastal Services Center (CSC)

Funding Amount: $299,922

PI: Walter Peacock

Students Employed: Joseph Mayunga

Abstract:

Texas A&M University (TAMU), Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG), and the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) are working together to develop a suite of Community Resilience Indicators (CRIs) (Activity 1) and a comprehensive strategy for not only gaining community support and input into their development and implementing but also undertake future training (Activity 2) in the use of CRIs to enhance coastal community resilience along the Gulf Coast. Our project will also be closely integrated with the University of New Orleans’s project in Louisiana. Drawing on two projects whose strengths are complementary on indicator development and yet offer two unique approaches for gaining and sustaining community involvement will yield implementation strategies that include a collaboratively-developed plan to develop and implement CRIs in a range of community settings. The PIs will work closely with the Coastal Services Center (CSC) to develop strategies that fully address the available and future resource and services support of the CSC.

Duration: 2006–2012

Funding Agency: Coastal Coordination Council, Texas General Land Office (GLO), National Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Funding Amount: $744,000

PI: Walter Peacock

Students Employed: Gabriel Burns, Rahmawati Husein, Jung Eun Kang, Joseph Mayunga

Abstract:

This proposal is to make a status and trends study of coastal vulnerability to natural hazards that would consider the following items: Evaluate content and implementation of the State of Texas Mitigation Plan (October 2004) for applicability to the Coastal Management Plan. Assess the regulatory regime and effectiveness of construction codes and land use planning policies to mitigate potential impacts of coastal natural hazards. Identify best practices and emerging technologies related to building code and land use planning that could further mitigation potential impacts of coastal natural hazards. Assess the local, state and federal resources available for mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery to coastal natural hazards and evaluate their application to the Coastal Management Program. Evaluate the geographic relationship between current coastal management program boundaries and project impacts from various categories of hurricanes based on the latest coastal study area maps. Assess the physical and social vulnerabilities of coastal populations to facilitate planning and policy development related to hazard mitigation and response. Assess the adoption of hazard mitigation technologies (e.g., hurricane shutters), issues related to the adoption of these technologies, and disaster planning by households and businesses so that effective and targeted outreach and education activities can be developed.

Duration: 2008–2009

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Funding Amount: $83,454

PI: Walter Peacock

Students Employed: Sarah Bernhardt

Abstract:

The goal of this project is to explore the possibility of establishing a Natural Hazard Vulnerability and Resiliency Observatory Network. In the spring of 2008, a workshop was held among leading scholars and experts on the social dimensions of natural hazards to lay the conceptual foundation for a future Network.

Duration: 2006–2009

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Funding Amount: $332,419/3 years

PI: Michael Lindell, Carla Prater

Abstract:

This project is conducting research on coastal communities’ best options for protecting themselves from hurricane and tsunami surge hazards. In the past year, we completed revisions on a multi-stage model of household response to three hazards-flood, hurricane, and toxic chemical release (Lindell & Hwang, 2008). The model, which extends Lindell and Perry’s (1992, 2004) Protective Action Decision Model, proposed a basic causal chain from hazard proximity through hazard experience and risk perception to expectations of continued residence in the home and adoption of household hazard adjustments. In a second, task, we completed the final revisions on a community policy process review that has assessed changes in communities’ tsunami hazard awareness and emergency preparedness and examined the processes influencing community management of hurricane and tsunami surge hazards (Tang, Lindell, Prater & Brody, 2008). A third task completed revisions on a simple, rapid method for calculating evacuation time estimates (ETEs) that is compatible with research findings about evacuees’ behavior in hurricanes (Lindell, 2008). A fourth task examined the degree to which the use of the Incident Command System (ICS) influenced the performance of Texas EOCs during Hurricane Rita (Lutz & Lindell, 2008).

Duration: 2009–2011

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Funding Amount: $399,975 ($234,580 Texas A&M University; $165,395 Clemson University)

PI: Michael Lindell, Carla Prater

Abstract:

This project will address four fundamental research objectives, the first of which is to assess the extent of users’ knowledge about fundamental concepts of hurricane behavior and evacuation management. The second objective is to examine users’ mental models of hurricane evacuation decisions, the third objective is to examine users’ interpretations of conventional hurricane track displays, and the fourth objective is to develop and test new visualization methodologies for hurricane event displays.

Duration: 2007–2009

Funding Agency: National Research Council, Transportation Research Board (NRC/TRB)

Funding Amount: $300,000

PI: George Rogers

Students Employed: David Bierling, Gao Shan

Abstract:

Examines and rewrites the Haz Mat Commodity Flow Study (CFS) guidelines for Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs).

Duration: 2007–2009

Funding Agency: National Park Service (NPS)

Funding Amount: $130,000

PI: George Rogers

Students Employed: Eric Bardenhagen

Abstract:

Develop Hurricane Recovery Plan for Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Duration: 2007–2008

Funding Agency: Mid-American Earthquake Center, National Science Foundation (NSF)

Funding Amount: $45,000

PI: Walter Peacock

Students Employed: Yi Z Lin

Abstract:

The goal of the project is to advance the state-of-the-art of social science research on earthquake hazards to be better aligned and integrated with the quantitative modeling approach that characterizes current research in the geophysical and engineering areas, including: Developing a set of quantitative models to estimate the social and economic consequences that result from the physical damage produced by earthquakes of various sizes. Developing a cross-hazard metric to characterize the damage sites produced by a hazard event (earthquake, flood or hurricane). This metric will serve as the exogenous variable that drives the social and economic models.

Duration: 2006–2009

Funding Agency: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Funding Amount: $50,000

PI: George Rogers

Abstract:

Consult with FEMA and MDC on Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program (EDP) program and help with report preparation for Congressional Report on EDP.

Duration: 2005–2007

Funding Agency: MDC Inc.

Funding Amount: $57,000

PI: George Rogers

Students Employed: Gabriel Burns

Abstract:

Conduct Associated Group Analysis (AGA) surveys on disadvantaged groups in Gulf Coast area. Our task is to analyze risk language using an AGA analysis in various groups within disadvantaged communities impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Individuals in each group will list the important problems and issues in their community. The words used to express these will be further elaborated in terms of their shared underlying cultural meaning. The process is expected: 1) to empower subjects to help identify local concerns; 2) to create opportunities for subjects to discover shared meanings which can be viewed as an important first step in community agenda setting; and 3) to share results with communities, to help identify barriers to communication before, during and after disaster. The ultimate analyses of pattern differences will enhance communication through enhance shared meaning.

Duration: 2004–2009

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award

Funding Amount: $515,500

PI: Samuel D. Brody

Research Assoc: Wesley Highfield

Students Employed: Anita Hollmann, Walter M. Peacock

Abstract:

This research project addresses coastal flooding problems by implementing an interactive research and educational program on flood mitigation, sustainable watershed management, and policy learning. It develops a framework for adaptive decision making for coastal flood hazards by integrating research, education, and information dissemination. The research component focuses on the impacts of wetland development on coastal watershed flooding and policy learning at the community level to mitigate the adverse impacts of flood damage to the human and natural environment. A two-phase longitudinal research design employs both quantitative and qualitative analyses to investigate flooding problems in Texas and Florida. Phase one will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the spatial pattern of wetland development over a ten-year period and correlate this development with coastal watershed flooding. Phase two will identify thresholds of policy learning by examining how communities adjust and adapt to repetitive flooding. Both research phases will use multivariate analysis to measure the effects of wetland development on flooding and the effects of flooding on policy adjustment while controlling for socioeconomic, biophysical, and other contextual factors.