Maxwell School News

The maps are a tool to communicate more realistic flood risks to vulnerable groups, says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science. You can plug your address into a FEMA webpage and it will tell you your property’s flood risk. “But,” Pralle says, “if you don’t know where the risky areas are, none of that works.”

“When we don’t measure things, it makes it much harder to claim that there is a problem and that the government has some kind of responsibility to help alleviate it,” says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

“We overbuild in flood zones everywhere across the country…but with camps it's especially worrisome. You're not just putting yourself at risk, you're putting these children at risk who you're supposed to be looking out for their safety,” says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

“It’s a mystery to me why they [Camp Mystic] weren’t taking proactive steps to move structures away from the risk, let alone challenging what seems like a very reasonable map that shows these structures were in the 100-year flood zone,” says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

As a congressional staffer for U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, Zayn Aga lined up resources for those impacted by the devastating Eaton Fire.

So much of the response following disasters can feel piecemeal and reactive, says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of poltical science. “Every dollar we put into prevention is going to be a lot more efficiently spent,” she explains. In a world reshaped by climate change, “this idea that there’s safe places you can go hide is unrealistic.”

“The type of damage that you'll see is to property, to infrastructure, to roads and highways, but also to critical infrastructure like hospitals and power stations. And this will be devastating. It will be in the many billions of dollars,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

“Fiscal Implications of Disasters and the Managed Retreat Thereafter: Evidence from Hurricane Sandy,” co-authored by Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in Natural Hazards Review.

“This is a massive flooding event...and the floods were quite rapid in their onset. There are over 5 million people who are marooned or stranded and devasted across 11 districts, 23 reported deaths now but those figures will rise and relief cannot reach many people,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

Women in Bangladesh suffer disproportionately during floods, as Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has documented in a study, in part because they bear the brunt of responsibility for managing water and food for their household, as well as taking care of their children.

"Extreme Weather Events and Local Fiscal Responses: Evidence from U.S. Counties," co-authored by Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in Economics of Disasters and Climate Change.

"We're getting lots of intense rain in short periods of time. And that just means that a lot of the drainage systems in cities, especially with old sort of infrastructure, can't handle that amount of runoff in that quick of a time," says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

Citing the work of organizations like Global Witness in conflict zones worldwide, Selina Gallo-Cruz, associate professor of sociology, points out that a significant part of the violence on this planet comes from the North's "extraction of natural resources through mining or deforestation—palm oil plantations are a big one—and mega-, mega-agricultural projects," all of which lead to "outbreaks of very violent conflict."

When there is less precipitation than normal, warmer temperatures cause vegetation to dry out more quickly, says Ethan Coffel, assistant professor of geography and the environment.

What is clear is that the Canadian wildfires are a product of man-produced climate change and climate disasters are going to become more commonplace, says Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment.

"Before this week, it was easy for those of us in the East to think that suffocating wildfire smoke was solely a West Coast problem. But no longer. The smoke clouding our skies, scratching our throats and watering our eyes shows we’re all Westerners now," writes Robert Wilson, associate professor of geography and the environment.

How can governments properly prepare now for when the next disaster strikes? Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs, provides six steps that give leaders a practical approach to emergency preparedness in a report published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Anne Mosher, associate professor of geography and the environment, was featured in the Forbes article, "U.S. Government Marshals Resources To Meet Challenges Of Back-To-Back Hurricanes."

Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science, was quoted in the High Country News article, "Rising rivers don’t necessarily follow the lines on a map."

Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science, was interviewed for the Salon article, "Glaciers and 'zombie ice': The planet is melting at both ends, research finds."