NASA-funded ATX Climate Atlas
Along with an interdisciplinary team of UT researchers, City of Austin Office of Resilience staff, and Go Austin Vamos Austin, the SSPG research group is leading the development of an ATX Climate Atlas funded by NASA’s Equity and Environmental Justice Program.
UT Press Release on the NASA-funded project
Along with Paola Passalacqua in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, I co-lead a Planet Texas 2050 Flagship project called Networks for Hazard Preparedness and Response. Texas is rather uniquely positioned for increasing exposure to a wide range of climate-driven natural hazards. Leading the way is expensive and deadly catastrophic flooding from hurricanes, storm surges, and extreme rain events. Making Texas resilient requires different, innovative ways to understand interacting natural, technical, and social processes that natural disasters intersect so that our communities can prepare and respond to increasing threats. Our flagship is driving scientific discovery through novel network science approaches to integrated modeling and transform the way we govern disaster risk and response.
Other Planet Texas 2050 supported project include:
Texas Water Governance
In partnership with the Texas Water Foundation and with support from the Mitchell Foundation, we are mapping the Texas Water Governance System. Interact with Texas Water institutions and policy mechanisms here.
Austin Area Sustainability Indicators (A2Si)
At the Austin Area Sustainability Indicators (A2Si), we aim to measure quality of life, sustainability trends, and serve as the foundation for a systems approach to address challenges in Central Texas.
We operationalize our mission by Collecting, Connecting, Catalyzing. Collecting primary and secondary data, analyzing it, and reporting it are the foundational tasks of the project. Connecting refers to ensuring that the data that is collected and reported is in service of the community. This includes the dissemination of the results to a wide range of stakeholders and community members. Given the RGK Center’s position between non-profits, policy, and academia, A2Si can benefit from being at the center of this stage to effectively connect and catalyze. The result is catalyzing action by different segments of the community. This action can take many forms, but generally reflects how philanthropy, non-profits, government, and community can use data to improve decision-making and policy design.
Extreme Heat in Austin
Our research group is working with UT-Health, the Jackson School of Geosciences, and Go Austin, Vamos Austin (GAVA) to understand and mitigate the impacts of extreme heat on Austin’s more vulnerable populations. With funding and support from NOAA’s Extreme Heat Risk Initiative, we are working to assess risk, risk perception, and community engagement strategies to better prepare Austin residents.