Enter the Resilience, Education, and Advocacy Center for Hazard Preparedness (REACH) hub 鈥� the product of a partnership between researchers from 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Community Innovation and Education, College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the City of Orlando. Officially unveiled Jan. 28 at the Orlando Emergency Operations Center, the hub is a self-sustaining mobile unit designed to be deployed to neighborhoods in need of critical services following emergencies. These include air-conditioning, mobile charging stations, broadband internet connection, and an onboard refrigerator and freezer that can assist with food storage and distribution.

鈥淭he program is focused on community-centered projects in close partnership with civic agencies, which was perfect for this idea.鈥� 鈥� Kelly Stevens, assistant professor

Kelly Stevens, principal investigator and assistant professor in the , says the city approached the team with an idea for a mobile resilience hub over five years ago. She found the U.S. National Science Foundation鈥檚 (NSF) Civic Innovation program shortly after.

鈥淭he program is focused on community-centered projects in close partnership with civic agencies, which was perfect for this idea,鈥� Stevens says.

Funded by a total of $1 million in grants from both the NSF and U.S. Department of Energy, the project kicked off in 2022 with a planning phase before receiving approval to begin the design and development phase in 2023. Stevens has led the REACH hub project alongside co-principal investigators Yue 鈥淕urt鈥� Ge, public administration associate professor; L. Trenton S. Marsh, urban education assistant professor; Liqiang Wang, computer science professor; and Zhihua Qu, electrical and computer engineering professor. Other faculty on the project include Maritza Concha, nonprofit management lecturer; Christopher Emrich, emergency management professor; and Kristopher Davis, associate professor of materials science and engineering.

The solar-powered REACH hub will be deployed to neighborhoods in need of critical services to improve disaster response and recovery efforts. Although designed primarily with 鈥済ray skies鈥� or emergency situations in mind, the pilot hub will not go unused during 鈥渂lue skies鈥� conditions. The REACH team has taken a collaborative approach that engages community partners in helping drive not only the hub鈥檚 design process but also ideas for its use outside of emergency deployment. That includes an educational component, which uses 360-degree video technology and virtual-reality headsets.

鈥淧artnerships have been the cornerstone of this project,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淥ne of the strengths in our proposal was the demonstrated partnership 麻豆原创 has with the city of Orlando. Further, we have two core partners on this project 鈥攖he Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida鈥檚 Levy-Hughes Clubhouse and Hebni Nutrition, both located in Parramore 鈥� and they have provided feedback on how the hub could be useful to the work they do in the community with residents and Orlando youth.鈥�

Michael Hess, director of sustainability and resilience for the City of Orlando, also served as director of its Future Ready program, which focused on guiding the city toward a smarter and more sustainable future. It was during the plan鈥檚 development phase that he and his staff met Stevens and began collaborating on bringing the resilience hubs to life.

鈥淭he hub is the result of the city, 麻豆原创 and our other partners taking the concept of resilience and creating something with it,鈥� Hess says. 鈥淚t’s going to get used in 鈥榖lue skies鈥� 99% of the time 鈥� hopefully, we don鈥檛 have too many disasters 鈥� which means our sustainability and resilience team can use it for both education and fun. That could be anything from a movie night to teaching kids how to harvest from our community gardens. We鈥檙e looking at different types of educational content to help people be more sustainable and resilient.鈥�

The city will ultimately be responsible for deploying and maintaining the hub, but Stevens and her team will remain closely involved throughout the rest of the grant period, which runs through the end of September. Currently, they are continuing to collect insight from community members and partners that will further inform and hone the hub鈥檚 possible uses.

鈥淲e will be conducting demonstrations over the next few months where we will be collecting feedback from residents about the hub, evaluating the educational programs, and making adjustments to the resilience educational programming,鈥� Stevens says.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says the hub is a welcome addition to the city鈥檚 six existing community centers 鈥� which double as resource distribution centers for residents following disasters 鈥� as it provides a means to bring resources straight to those who need them most.

鈥淲e’re always excited when we can provide additional support to our residents 鈥� especially after heat events, hurricanes or whatever other storms we may have,鈥� Dyer says. 鈥溌槎乖� has partnered with the city on so many different things, including designing and providing this deployable mobile hub, which I would say is pretty incredible. We are ecstatic to now have the ability to locate a resiliency hub anywhere in the city.鈥�

Researcher Credentials
Stevens joined 麻豆原创 in 2017 and holds a doctorate in public administration from Syracuse University.聽She is also a member of聽麻豆原创鈥檚 Resilient, Intelligent, and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Cluster听补苍诲听.

Ge joined the College of Community Innovation and Education in 2018 and serves as co-lead of the Urban Resilience Initiative. He is also part of the Center for Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy System (RISES) faculty research cluster. He holds a doctorate in urban and regional science from Texas A&M University.

Marsh earned his doctorate in teaching and learning with a concentration in urban education from New York University. He joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Community Innovation and Education in 2019.

Qu arrived at 麻豆原创 in 1990 after earning a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is both a Pegasus Professor and the Thomas J. Riordan and Herbert C. Towle Chair of 麻豆原创鈥檚聽Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Additionally, Qu is the founding director of both RISES and the multi-institutional聽Foundations for Engineering Education for Distributed Energy Resources Center听(贵贰贰顿贰搁).

Wang earned his doctorate in computer science from Stony Brook University in 2006 and joined the 麻豆原创聽Department of Computer Science聽in 2015.

麻豆原创 Professor Christopher Emrich, an expert in hazard science, social vulnerability, disaster recovery and community resiliency, has plenty of experience with hurricanes. He鈥檚 worked with FEMA and other federal agencies to identify vulnerabilities in communities affected by hurricanes and to develop resiliency strategies.

As part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, Emrich conducts studies into planning for and responding to disasters.

Here he offers some do’s and don鈥檛’s to help you get ready for hurricane season

The Do’s

1. Get flood insurance. If you do not live in a flood zone the average cost is $660 a year for $250,000 worth of coverage. One inch of flood water can cause more than $25,000 in damage.
2. Make sure you have enough supplies for seven days.
3. Start preparing as early as possible. Pick up an extra gallon of water every time you go to the grocery store until you have 7 gallons per person 鈥� 1 gallon per day for seven days. Or buy a WaterBob or similar product that will turn your bathtub into a storage tank.
4. Buy non-perishable foods that are full of protein, like peanut butter. Two tablespoons provide enough energy to get through a meal time during an emergency.
5. Get 5-gallon buckets with fitted lids from Home Depot, Walmart or similar stores. These are great for storing electronics, batteries, chargers, important documents, medicines and food. Properly closing the lids on these buckets also allows them to float.
6. Establish a designated shelter area where you鈥檒l keep emergency supplies in your home so you鈥檙e not scrambling around to find them. Do not raid your supplies once you have them ready. You can use them and replenish after hurricane season.
7. Make an evacuation plan. Make sure you and everyone in your family knows where to meet in case anyone gets separated. Talk through the plan often so everyone is on the same page. DO NOT wait until an evacuation order is issued to create a plan. Failure to plan = planned failure.
8. Turn on emergency notifications on your mobile devices. Based on your location, new warning systems can send messages with weather updates, alerts and other useful information. These alerts can be more up-to-date than newscasts, so you should trust them for the most accurate information. Take shelter when instructed.
9. Keep an emergency escape tool in each of your vehicles. This may come in handy for cutting seatbelts or breaking glass in an emergency.
10. Check on neighbors, especially those who are elderly or need extra help before, during and after emergencies.

顿辞苍鈥檛’蝉

1. Don鈥檛 let your car鈥檚 gas tank get below half-full at any point during the summer.
2. Don鈥檛 think you know more than weather experts. Instead, listen to trained emergency management officials, meteorologists and other leaders whose job it is to keep you informed and safe.
3. 聽Don鈥檛 bother taping up your windows because it doesn鈥檛 reduce the risk of them blowing out. This is especially true for people living apartments. Plus, it will only cause problems when removing the tape.
4. 聽Don鈥檛 drive through flooded streets, even if you鈥檙e very familiar with the street. A few inches of water can move a vehicle. Sinkholes may also develop on flooded roads and you won鈥檛 be able to see them.

Resources

In the event of a storm, 麻豆原创 will provide communication with instructions on closures, depending on the weather conditions pre-and post-hurricanes. Our priority it to keep you safe. All students and employees automatically are signed up to receive these messages, and settings can be updated via聽. A parent, spouse or other secondary contact鈥檚 email address also can be added, allowing them to receive the updates.

In the meantime, here鈥檚 some information we hope you find useful to help you prepare at home.

Florida Hurricane Preparedness Tax Free Holiday: June 1-14

Floridians can purchase qualified hurricane preparedness related items such as batteries and generators and will not be required to pay sales tax. This year the holiday is earlier to encourage people to plan early. Click for a list of qualified items.

Families with special needs are encouraged to sign up with the , which is a part of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, to get information about resources in preparation and during a storm emergency.

Personalized disaster plans are critical and .

Communicating with children about disasters can help alleviate stress. This website offers tips, games and age specific information for families.

Planning for pets is also important. Floridadisaster.org聽offers advice for pet and livestock management.

Emergency kits can make all the difference for riding out a storm. Do you have all the ?

Neighborhoods throughout Orlando could easily find themselves without power, internet and mobility after significant weather events. Effective local response requires a mobile, self-sustaining solution to provide residents with services ranging from device charging and air-conditioned space to laundry to food distribution and even ice for food preservation. Even more, could such a solution also provide educational resources for residents to prepare for future emergencies more effectively?

Kelly Stevens, assistant professor of public administration and the project鈥檚 principal investigator, has been working with fellow 麻豆原创 researchers to bring this vision to life. Together with the City of Orlando and other community leaders, the team has spent the past year conceptualizing what an effective Resilience, Education, and Advocacy Center for Hazard Preparedness (REACH) hub would look like.

Now, they鈥檙e ready to put their ideas into action.

The team recently received approval and funding for the project鈥檚 second phase from the National Science Foundation鈥檚 CIVIC program, which involved presenting the findings from the project鈥檚 first phase and successfully demonstrating its feasibility.

Stevens serves on the REACH project team with Yue 鈥淕urt鈥� Ge, public administration associate professor, L. Trenton S. Marsh, urban education assistant professor, Liqiang Wang, computer science professor, and Zhihua Qu, electrical and computer engineering professor, who serve as co-principal investigators. Senior personnel on the project include Maritza Concha, nonprofit management lecturer; Christopher Emrich, emergency management professor; and Kristopher Davis, associate professor of materials science and engineering.

鈥淲e are extremely happy with the success of Phase I,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淲e had over 300 responses from residents to the community survey we built with our partners, which informed our design process in a way that allowed us to really co-design these hubs with and for the community.鈥�

Stevens says feedback from the community was critical because residents鈥� responses provided insight into potential resources and amenities for the hub beyond the original concept 鈥� from an onboard ice maker to finding a more efficient way to distribute water than simply having water bottles onboard.

The architectural design produced by the team is critical to Phase II of the project, the principal goal of which is to build and test a prototype REACH hub in the communities where it will ultimately be used.

The hub is designed as a trailer chassis-based mobile unit that can be easily deployed in neighborhoods without power or service access. The unit will contain a slew of appliances and usable services for residents to charge their devices, cool off, access the internet and more. The key to the hub is its self-sustaining power, principally supplied through solar panels and supplemented by a conventional generator when under heavy load.

鈥淩ight now, we鈥檙e working to select vendors that will construct the hub and everything on it,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for someone who can build the hub itself, design the electrical and solar components, install the appliances, and ultimately provide us with a fully realized and working hub.鈥�

Stevens also notes the hub itself is only half the battle. Critical to the project鈥檚 value in the community is its educational component, designed to provide affected residents with necessary information about disaster preparedness and recovery before and after a disaster.

鈥淥ur 鈥榖lue skies鈥� curriculum will consist of community-driven, interactive and immersive STEM education learning stations,鈥� says Marsh, who serves as the project鈥檚 education lead. 鈥淲e want to build the programming around what residents recognize; the landmarks they view as signs of strength and resiliency, as well as areas they feel are more vulnerable or susceptible to inclement weather.鈥�

The hubs will also host just-in-time preparedness content for residents to assist with preparation and decision-making ahead of a potential emergency. Evacuation plans and food preparation, Marsh says, are plans the team hopes to focus content on.

Ideally, the team hopes to leverage emerging augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies in developing educational programming to provide residents with in-depth, immersive experiences. The 麻豆原创-led HazardAware project also collects data that can provide individual address-based natural hazard and home resilience information tailored to residents鈥� specific homes.

鈥淲e hope that we鈥檒l be able to further leverage our resources at 麻豆原创 to accomplish these goals with virtual and augmented reality programming, specifically through a potential partnership with the university鈥檚 ,鈥� Marsh says.

Once the prototype hub has been built and the educational programming completed, the team will run extensive tests and experiments on the hub鈥檚 appliances and power systems to ensure its viability in real-world scenarios. After that, testing will move into the community 鈥� where Stevens says the team will really get a sense of how the hub will work.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to implement four test deployments in local neighborhoods 鈥� three during 鈥榖lue skies鈥� and one after an actual emergency,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淲e want to see how people actually interact with the hub 鈥� what they鈥檙e interested in, what parts are functional and even what parts aren鈥檛 super functional.鈥�

The final step, once testing is completed, is to hand off ownership of the hub to the city of Orlando. The city will be responsible for the deployment, maintenance and future development of the project. Michael Hess, director of the City of Orlando鈥檚 Future Ready program, and Ian Lahiff, an energy project manager with the city, serve as senior personnel on the project.

鈥淭he city has been our core partner from Day One, so we know they鈥檙e in this for the long haul,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淥ur team is confident they will be good stewards of the project and its impact on the community.鈥�

The ultimate goal, Stevens says, is to produce an effective and efficient means of increasing resilience in the community.

鈥淲hen we can show our community that 麻豆原创 is leveraging its expertise and resources to produce technology 鈥� in a quick timeframe and at a very local scale 鈥� that can actually be used in the community, that鈥檚 the real impact,鈥� she says.

Researcher Credentials

Stevens received her doctorate in public administration from Syracuse University and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 School of Public Administration, part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Community Innovation and Education, in 2017.聽She is a member of聽麻豆原创鈥檚 Resilient, Intelligent, and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Cluster听补苍诲听

Ge joined 麻豆原创 in 2018 and serves as co-lead of the Urban Resilience Initiative based at 麻豆原创 Downtown. He has also served on the RISES faculty research cluster since 2021. He holds a doctorate in urban and regional science from Texas A&M University.

Marsh earned his doctorate in teaching and learning with a concentration in urban education from New York University and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Community Innovation and Education in 2019 after a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan 鈥� Ann Arbor.

Qu arrived at 麻豆原创 in 1990 after earning a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently the Thomas J. Riordan and Herbert C. Towle Chair of 麻豆原创鈥檚聽Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he is also the founding director of both RISES 鈥� a university research center on energy systems 鈥� and the multi-institutional聽听(贵贰贰顿贰搁).

Wang earned his doctorate in computer science from Stony Brook University in 2006 and joined the 麻豆原创聽Department of Computer Science聽in 2015.

With that in mind, 麻豆原创 Professor and his team of graduate and postdoctoral researchers set out to the city of Cape Coral, Florida, after Hurricane Ian in September to collect critical impact data.

Their goal was to provide empirical evidence on where exactly hurricane storm surge flood waters reached throughout the city during the storm鈥檚 peak, which is essential data needed when planning for recovery and mitigating future storm impacts.

Cape Coral was one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ian as it made landfall in Southwest Florida in September.

Emrich鈥檚 team identified the resource gap almost immediately. The U.S. Geological Survey, which was already on-site conducting survey missions to collect data in several areas, was not tasked to collect high-water mark data from communities affected by flooding in the municipality of Cape Coral.

Seeing an opportunity to conduct field research that would be beneficial to the city鈥檚 local officials, Emrich worked directly with 麻豆原创鈥檚 and the city鈥檚 administration to get into the field before flood marks were either washed away or cleaned up by disaster survivors.

Using the designation 麻豆原创 Emergency Management Research Initiative, Emrich assembled students and postdoctoral scholars from 麻豆原创鈥檚 Sustainable Coastal System鈥檚 Cluster (one of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Faculty Cluster Initiatives) 鈥� including Gene Longenecker, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency鈥檚 Modeling Task Force lead.

鈥淲e need to know empirically 鈥撯�� scientifically 鈥撯�� where the water was, because it鈥檚 a critical step for planning,鈥� Emrich says. 鈥淭o find this data, we had to get creative.鈥�

Emrich says collecting this data is also time-sensitive because of residents鈥� desire to clean up immediately after a storm and future rain events can erase the evidence they are looking for.

Starting with data on Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance requests already summarized by FEMA at the U.S. standard 1-kilometer national grid level, the team鈥檚 mission focused on identifying areas of flood damage and existing gaps in high water mark collection by other agencies and entities.

Over the course of six days, the team traveled across Cape Coral identifying debris lines, seed lines and other clues on mostly public and vacant land to flag and measure high water marks throughout the city. Emrich鈥檚 team flagged more than 150 high water marks using direct measurements.

Emergency management professionals are already reaping the benefits of the team鈥檚 labor, as their data will become part of the official USGS database for immediate access by anyone interested in undertaking flooding, hydrology or storm surge modeling.

Surveyors from the city of Cape Coral revisited flagged high water-mark data collection sites to provide survey grade measurements, a step which Emrich says is critical to ensuring the team鈥檚 data can be used by the most people 鈥� from emergency managers to hydrologists and others interested in improving storm surge models.

鈥淲e want to see how our perishable situational data compares to scientifically measured survey grade data,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f the data we collect are accurate enough for local professionals to use in future planning, it means the data we can collect quickly in future disasters become that much more useful.鈥�

Emrich says he aims to continue building on the success of the mission in Cape Coral to create a standing, deployable team that government at all levels can call upon to conduct rapid data collection missions anywhere in Florida.

鈥淎fter every tornado, the National Weather Service sends out a team to conduct a survey,鈥� Emrich says. 鈥淲e want to be the team that can do that for every flooding event in Florida. Somebody needs to measure the qualitative and quantitative impacts that would otherwise be lost after those events. We cannot create effective, efficient and accurate plans for disaster recovery without baseline information on hazard exposure.鈥�

He adds that the initiative is about more than simply collecting data.

鈥淲e want to take the information we collect and use it to answer tough scientific questions that we can turn into wisdom for emergency management professionals,鈥� Emrich says. 鈥淲hen people look at the impact of a disaster, they first look at the amount of federal aid distributed. For various reasons, federal datasets only tell part of the story, even from a financial perspective. We want to help paint the full picture so the professionals in the field can make the best decisions for their communities as they move from response to recovery.鈥�

Emrich received his doctoral degree in geography from the University of South Carolina and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 School of Public Administration, part of the聽, in 2016. Emrich also leads 麻豆原创鈥檚 Sustainable Coastal Systems research cluster and co-leads 麻豆原创鈥檚聽.

Resiliency and the use of technology are key in the work being done at 麻豆原创. Here鈥檚 a roundup of some of the many relevant research projects at 麻豆原创 and how they can potentially help residents in Florida and beyond.

Home Vulnerability

Public Administration Associate Professor Chris Emrich, in collaboration with researchers across several universities this year, developed an online tool homeowners can use to check how vulnerable their homes are to natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods. A score is generated based on public records about your home as well as scientific data about your geographical location. is free and available to the public now. It includes tips for reducing risks to your property based on the score your home generates.

The Power of Social Media

Claire Connolly Knox, an associate professor and founding director of the Master of Emergency and Crisis Management program, is working on two studies. One focuses on identifying cost-effective, climate-informed green infrastructure adaptations to reduce flood risk in Houston鈥檚 vulnerable and underserved communities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has funded the project. She also recently completed a study looking at how Florida counties used social media as part of their emergency management before, during, and after Hurricane Irma.

For many Florida counties, Hurricane Irma in 2017 was the first time using social media during a disaster. She found that some agencies still don鈥檛 use social media as part of their communication strategy, some rely only on social media and the vast majority are somewhere in between. Rather than just using social media to push out information to communities, Knox and her team have found that some agencies are finding creative ways to gather information from citizens鈥� posts to better deploy help. She found several challenges, but many possibilities for empowering xcitizens and communities to provide critical information that could help better deploy emergency response resources during hurricane emergencies.

Predicting Traffic for Better Evacuations

Engineering Assistant Professor Samiul Hasan is looking for ways to better understand real-time individual, social and agency behavior during evacuations caused by rapidly intensifying hurricanes (RIH).

These kinds of hurricanes quickly intensify making critical infrastructure management and smooth evacuations more challenging. Hasan and the rest of the research team are analyzing the 鈥渄ynamics of risk information processing and decision making to inform the design, development, improvisation, and overall evacuation management for critical transportation infrastructure. The insights from the research are expected to help facilitate safer evacuations and more efficiently organize risk-averting behaviors during RIH,鈥� the researchers say of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project that is expected to wrap up in 2023. Hasan also is studying how real-time data from roadway systems and social media can help predict traffic demand during hurricane evacuations. Hasan used data from hurricanes Matthew, and Irma.

Reducing Crashes During Evacuation Rush

Rezaur Rahman 鈥�19MS 鈥�21PhD, a former doctoral student in Hasan鈥檚 lab, also investigated how we might reduce the number of crashes on the roadways during stressful evacuation times. In his study, published last year, he evaluated the safety impact of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems during a hurricane evacuation. The team developed a microscopic simulation model of evacuation traffic and calibrated it using traffic data from an almost 10-mile stretch of I-75 between Ocala and Gainesville, Florida, during Hurricane Irma鈥檚 evacuation period. Rahman鈥檚 model found that by using cruise control crashes could potentially be reduced by almost 50 percent, and travel time improves despite heavy stop-and-go traffic. The SAFER-SIM University Transportation Center, a consortium of 聽various universities including 麻豆原创, supported this study.

Hurricanes and Sea Level Rise

Engineering Assistant Professor Thomas Wahl and his team are working on a new method to determine where extreme events, like 100-year storm floods, are more likely to occur, whether the likelihood of such extremes is changing over time, and why.

These projects are but a snapshot of the research that goes on at 麻豆原创 to help people and communities be better prepared for hurricanes. As the work continues, new findings will be shared with the public, policymakers, and emergency managers to help ensure we stay resilient during hurricane season.

That鈥檚 why the 麻豆原创 and a team of researchers from across the country have just released a new online tool that can help people determine how ready their home, or future home, is for the next big storm.

The tool, called HazardAware, is now live, just ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season.

The easy-to-use tool allows users to plug in an address and instantly receive the property鈥檚 HazardReady score. The score shows just how resilient, or disaster-ready, a home is, and projects how much hazards, such as winds and flooding, could cost a homeowner each year.

HazardAware can provide reports for 13.3 million addresses in 196 counties along the Gulf of Mexico 鈥� including all of Florida, and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. 聽This is a region that is historically impacted by hurricanes and other large hydrometeorological hazards each year.

With continued funding, HazardAware could also be expanded to cover the entire U.S. and other disasters such as wildfires and earthquakes.

A property鈥檚 HazardReady score takes into account 15 potential threats, including hurricane winds and flooding. The score also considers social and environmental vulnerability, community resilience, and home construction factors.

Users can choose to receive an emailed custom home report for their address, and they will also receive a renter and homebuyer checklist that can help ensure they ask the right questions next time they are in the market for a home.

The tool is part of a larger $3.4 million, multi-institution 麻豆原创-led project funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine鈥檚 Gulf Research Program.

鈥淲hen people buy houses, they generally think about location, pricing, crime, walkability and things like that,鈥� says Christopher Emrich, principal investigator of the research and a Boardman Endowed Associate Professor of Environmental Science and at 麻豆原创.聽鈥淏ut rarely do people think about how much hazards will cost. By going to HazardAware, people can compare houses and get more information they can use to make crucial decisions and smart choices about where they live.鈥�

For example, the score includes work by international expert and 麻豆原创 coastal risk engineer Thomas Wahl. Using his models of changes in future coastal flood risk, the tool produces an estimate of when a property will see coastal flooding or when flooding potential will double for properties already in coastal flood zones.

鈥淲e want to democratize this very scarce and very difficult to find hazard disaster and impact information,鈥� says Emrich, who also co-leads 麻豆原创鈥檚 and Sustainable Coastal Systems research cluster. 鈥淪ome of this data would require a Ph.D. and 40 hours of investment to make sense of, but we want to put it into everyone鈥檚 hands. HazardAware has built a team capable of pulling together this type of 鈥榝ugitive鈥� or hard-to-find information for homeowners and renters in the coastal zone.鈥�

For next steps, the researchers want to provide customized mitigation information through the tool for each home highlighting what can be done to reduce future hazard loss. They also want to implement an option where users can improve their home鈥檚 resiliency score by inputting upgrades they鈥檝e made, such as installing stormproof windows or a certified roof.

鈥淚 think the impetus for all this is to help people stay in their homes after a disaster by mitigating the threats hazards pose,鈥� Emrich says. 鈥淚f we can protect people’s homes, and people don鈥檛 have to leave, then they don鈥檛 suffer mental distress as deeply, and they don鈥檛 lose jobs as frequently. We can avoid a bunch of losses just by keeping people in their homes.鈥�

Partner institutions in the project are the University of South Carolina, Arizona State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Florida, the University of New Orleans, Louisiana Sea Grant, Florida Atlantic University and the RAND Corporation.

The project鈥檚 cross-discipline research team includes experts in geography, engineering, economics, hospitality and tourism, political science, ecology, environmental law, sustainability, mitigation, resilience, behavioral health sciences, housing policy, climate adaptation, and science and technical communication.

麻豆原创鈥檚 contributors include Wahl, a assistant professor; Assistant Professor Kristy Lewis;聽Rosen College of Hospitality Management聽Assistant Professor Sergio Alvarez; Associate Professor Jacopo Baggio; Associate Professor Sonia Stephens; Public Administration Associate Professor Claire Knox; Project Coordinator Roel Fleuren; (SMST) Information Systems Engineer Susan Bethel; SMST Senior Information Systems Engineer Eric Johnson; SMST Department of Information Systems Technology Program Director Tammie McClellan and SMST Web Designer Erica Recktenwald.

Emrich received his doctoral degree in geography from the University of South Carolina and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 School of Public Administration, part of the , in 2016.