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Texas A&M University College of Architecture

Projects

Coastal Communities Planning Atlas for Decision Makers and Local Residents: Phase II

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.

 

Advancing the Resilience of Coastal Localities: Developing, Implementing and Sustaining the Use of Coastal Resilience Indicators

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.

 

Status and Trends of Coastal Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

This proposal is to make a status and trends study of coastal vulnerability to natural hazards that would consider the following items: