Projects
Coastal Communities Planning Atlas for Decision Makers and Local Residents: Phase II
- Duration: 2008 - 2010
- Funding Agency: National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sea Grant Award
- PI: Samuel D. Brody
- Co-PI:Walter Peacock, Doug Wunneburger, Forster Ndubisi, June Martin
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
- Duration: 2007 - 2009
- Funding Agency: National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Coastal Services Center (CSC)
- PI: Walter Peacock
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
- Duration: 2006 - 2012
- Funding Agency: Coastal Coordination Council, Texas General Land Office (GLO), National Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- PI: Walter Peacock
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.