Poster Session Abstracts

Natural disasters and other hazard-induced disruptions pose growing risks to business operations and economic stability. As disasters increasingly affect supply chains, firms must adopt adaptive resilience strategies to minimize financial losses and accelerate recovery. While inventory management is a common response, it is often insufficient when used in isolation. This poster describes a study examining how U.S. firms respond to disaster-related supply chain disruptions by analyzing 160 businesses across multiple sectors. Using the Negative Binomial regression model, the authors assessed whether firms relying solely on inventories recover as efficiently as those using a combination of tactics, such as relocation, supplier diversification, and input substitution. The results revealed that firms adopting multifaceted strategies experience significantly shorter disruption durations. Sector-specific analyses highlighted that transportation and warehousing firms suffer longer recovery times. At the same time, manufacturing firms also showed marginal delays, emphasizing that the impact of disruption and recovery potentially vary by industry. Additionally, although no substantial evidence was found for differences across metal groups, marginal variations in recovery times for coltan and copper suggest material-specific vulnerabilities in disruption scenarios. These findings contribute to hazards and disaster research by identifying the most effective combinations of resilience strategies in post-disaster recovery. They also provide policymakers and emergency planners with actionable insights on how to support businesses before, during, and after disruptions, especially in critical sectors and industries that rely on less substitutable materials. This research supports the Natural Hazards Workshop’s mission to advance evidence-based resilience and recovery planning across interconnected systems.

Natural hazards increasingly disrupt communities worldwide. This poster describes a study examining the impact of convective storms on the wellbeing of residents in Midwestern communities in the United States. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 2024 with 909 participants. The survey asked about demographic background, housing conditions, risk perception, past severe weather experiences, and mental health.  Mental health scores revealed that 293 participants (32.2%) had high levels of anxiety, 289 (31.8%) had high levels of depression, and 102 (11.2%) had high levels of PTSD. Logistic regression analysis found that high level of impact by convective storms was associated with higher odds of having high level of anxiety, depression, and risk perception (p<0.001). However, there was no statistically significant association between high level of impact and PTSD (p=0.434). Significant associations were also observed with race, as Asian individuals had higher odds of anxiety (OR: 25.87, 95% CI: 2.19–305.59, p=0.010). Gender differences were evident, with females having higher odds of PTSD (OR: 2.79, 95% CI: 1.39–5.58, p=0.004) compared to males. Our findings underscore the urgent need for targeted mental health interventions, improved access to stable housing, and strengthened social support programs to mitigate the psychological burden of disasters. Addressing these disparities and enhancing disaster resilience are critical to reducing the long-term mental health consequences for storm-affected populations in the Midwest.

Risk communication is a crucial tool for fostering public cooperation during crisis events. It involves sharing information that influences the public's understanding and awareness of risks, as well as their approach to risk management. Various factors—such as warning fatigue, disabilities, socio-demographics, and past experiences—affect how people understand, assess, and respond to risks. Recent research has employed an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the development, communication, and use of weather information. Despite this, there remains a need to further study how best to tailor communication products to meet the needs of diverse populations. This project aims to further apply an interdisciplinary approach to enhance our understanding of how AI can be used to improve risk communication messaging.

This poster describes a study examining how video-based social media platforms like TikTok and Xiaohongshu (commonly called Little Red Book or Rednote by non-Chinese users) provide insights into hazard preparation, experience, and recovery across cultures. By analyzing videos and comments about hazards in the United States, China, and Australia, this research highlights how social media reveals cultural differences in understanding, responding to, and preparing for natural hazards. Using a qualitative approach, the study explores how video-based narratives bridge the gap between traditional media reporting and the lived experiences of affected individuals. Videos often feature people preparing for hazard events, asking questions, recalling past hazards, and explaining their significance to a global audience. Viewing these narratives as data offers valuable insights into how the relationship between viewer and creator serves as a powerful science communication tool, while also revealing evolving cultural norms, priorities, and behaviors around hazard response.

Local help during disasters often emerges before other established organizations spring into action, yet volunteer assistance is undervalued. The incorporation of volunteer assistance in post-disaster Emergency Management (EM) protocol faces several barriers, especially in the rescue efforts. Volunteerism in the context of disaster emergency is regarded as direct and indirect service with no self-interest. During disaster response, while emergent volunteers can offset several unmet needs and proliferate a sense of community, they also raise challenges due to liability, safety, or coordination concerns. Whereas research has been conducted on building community resilience through tangible resources and understanding the motivation behind rescue volunteers’ engagement, less research reflects upon the issues facing decision-makers to understand both the challenges and opportunities in managing volunteers during rescue operations.

This poster describes research aiming to enhance the understanding of those making decisions in critical circumstances. The study involved in-depth analysis of 26 interviews with emergency managers who took part in flood rescue operations during major flood events over the past 10 years in the United States. Using ATLAS.ti for qualitative analysis, grounded theory and descriptive coding were used to create categories and provide a priority-framework table with preliminary results indicating weightage of all coded issues—which included coordination, communication breakdown, liability, training, and social media—and were defined by opportunities and challenges. The research also used low-level assertion development to examine quotations from interviews on issues (nodes) from few key categories. Through descriptive analysis and inference of discussion, the research provides a better understanding on decision-making from the lens of emergency managers in volunteer rescue operations.

We are in a state of compounding, cascading disasters and systemic risks that some analysists call a polycrisis. Other experts have called for the need to reevaluate the idea of disaster and vulnerability. This points to the need to discard old beliefs, ideas, and policies that no longer serve the purpose—a process we can call unlearning. Such a process raises several points of inquiry. What is the definition and nature of unlearning? How does it occur? What forms can it take? How do we frame and relate it to concepts like innovation, learning, and adaptive management? This poster describes a research paper that amalgamates different theories and ideas to stitch together a conceptual framework of unlearning. It engages with climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, organizational learning theory, policy learning theory, adaptive management theory, innovation theory, education, and psychology. It unpacks the context, stakeholders, process, examples, triggers, and barriers to unlearning and develops a conceptual framework.

ShakeAlert earthquake early warning systems (EEW) are being installed in schools in Washington, Oregon, and California. EEW can provide valuable time for students, teachers, and other school personnel to take protective actions before dangerous ground shaking arrives. For schools to make the most of their EEW systems, all school community members must be trained on what to expect from the system and how to respond when they get an alert. ShakeAlert Ready Schools has created resources to provide schools with intentional and ongoing education. Age-appropriate lessons about earthquake science for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade integrate EEW, protective actions, and preparedness information. All lessons are aligned to Common Core mathematics and English Language Arts standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and individual state standards. Professional development materials ensure teachers and other school personnel are ready to respond to EEW alerts and support students. To ensure parents and guardians are aware of the ShakeAlert EEW system, there is a parent/guardian presentation, as well as a family engagement letter with emergency preparedness information. ShakeAlert Ready Schools has created an administrator planning guide and will conduct webinars to help administrators implement ShakeAlert educational materials in their school. Furthermore, all resources are available on the ShakeAlert Ready website. With feedback from school districts and the companies installing ShakeAlert EEW systems in schools, ShakeAlert Ready Schools continues to develop new resources to educate K-12 school communities to help them stay safe.

Extreme weather can reshape communities, not just damage property. The August 2016 Louisiana Floods caused $13.3 billion in damage and at least 13 deaths. Many affected areas were not classified as high flood risk zones, and as a result, numerous homeowners did not carry flood insurance. This poster describes a study exploring broader economic implications of post-flood population movement in Louisiana, where local taxes are the primary funding source for parish-level governance. We conducted a statistical analysis using data from the American Community Survey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood damage datasets. In parishes that experienced the highest levels of flood damage, the population of White residents declined by 0.54%, while the number of Black residents increased by 3.47% and the number of Hispanic residents increased by 5.25%. In contrast, neighboring parishes not directly affected by flooding saw a 0.22% increase in White residents and a 0.55% decrease in the Black residents. Although we do not have income data disaggregated by race at the parish level, 2016 state-level data show median household income was $55,820 for White households, $27,396 for Black households, and $39,276 for Hispanic households. These disparities may help explain the observed shifts. Simultaneously, median income in the most affected parishes rose by 4.43% while it declined by 4% in non-flooded areas. These findings highlight the affordability of previously flooded areas and the tradeoffs between safety and equity, given the increase in lower-income Black and Latino populations.

The communities on Mount Elgon in Uganda are at crossroads owing to the increasing prevalence of hydrometeorological geohazards. Slow onset climate changes alongside rapid onset events are interacting to produce seasonal disasters in these communities. Notably landslides and floods have reduced productivity and altered biodiversity dynamics. Surficial and deep-seated landslides are a common feature on Mount Elgon, while high levels of soil erosion beyond tolerable rates have been observed. Cognizant of these hydro-driven hazards, we commissioned a study to evaluate how nature-based solutions can be optimized to ameliorate geohazards on Mount Elgon. A mapping and characterization of the predominant hydrometeorological geohazards on Mountain Elgon was undertaken through interrogation of secondary sources, field observation coupled with consultative discussions with key on-site actors. Interviews were conducted to ascertain the extent to which local land users are utilizing nature-based solutions. Overall, the utility of nature-based solutions for hydrometeorological hazards seems to be dismal. Preliminary results indicate that nature-based solutions have been utilized for soil erosion control and to reduce flood and landslide risk in the communities. Contour bands and grass strips (>34%) are the most common nature-based measures being implemented at plot scale for soil erosion control but indirectly reducing flooding downstream. Similarly, some agroforestry measures with a multitude of purposes exist at hillslope scale for multiple geohazards but primarily soil erosion and landslides. Beyond the plot scale, stone bunding and grass strips are utilized to control erosion. Overall, only a very limited number (less than 5%) of the existing nature-based solutions have intentionally been installed for hazard mitigation.

This poster introduces Flood Justice Utilizing Satellite Observation—FLUJOS— as a novel co-production framework that leverages co-production principals, machine learning applied to satellite imagery for flood detection, and the lived experiences of frontline climate unjust communities to advance flood justice. Drawing from decolonial borderland theory, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and environmental justice scholarship, FLUJOS represents both a theoretical framework and practical methodology for addressing racialized flood injustice. The framework was piloted in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley through partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs), resulting in the development of a locally calibrated flood detection model using PlanetScope and Sentinel-1 satellite data. The research built from this framework also identifies four key pathways through which geospatial tools can support flood justice efforts: advocacy and transparency, funding, strategic focusing of efforts, and community empowerment. FLUJOS offers a replicable framework for combining technical expertise with local knowledge to address environmental justice concerns, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining local ownership and long-term sustainability of such tools.

Volunteer engagement is fundamental to the effectiveness of disaster and emergency management programs. However, declining participation rates among volunteers affiliated with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Canada's Humanitarian Workforce Program (HWF) present challenges for sustaining national disaster response capabilities. This research identifies and examines barriers to volunteer engagement within the five NGOs participating in the HWF. Using a bricoleur mixed-methods research design, I surveyed 120 respondents online and conducted two focus groups to explore factors hindering potential volunteer participation. Findings indicate that primary deterrents include awareness gaps, rigid organizational policies, time constraints, accessibility limitations, and perceived volunteer exploitation. Specifically, 62% of survey respondents reported being unaware of the HWF program and having difficulties accessing volunteer information. Time constraints impacted 53%, emphasizing the demand for episodic or micro-volunteering opportunities. Additionally, 31% noted that participating NGOs had restrictive onboarding processes, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and limited autonomy as significant barriers. Transportation challenges affected 31% of volunteers, particularly in rural and suburban communities. Cost-prohibitive and inflexible training requirements hindered participation for 39%, disproportionately impacting volunteers with disabilities who said they were not provided with inclusive accommodations. Volunteers’ perceptions of exploitation were significant, with 29% reporting they perceived volunteer exploitation, highlighting insufficient incentives compared to paid staff. Volunteers preferred tangible motivators, such as stipends, tax deductions, and symbolic recognition, such as a volunteer service medal. With HWF funding set to expire in March 2026, governments and NGOs should consider strategic policy adjustments and adopting inclusive recruitment strategies to develop sustainable Canadian volunteer-based disaster response capabilities amid increasing disaster frequency due to climate change.

Wildfires are an increasing threat to power systems, necessitating innovative and practical strategies for resilience. There are many available mitigation and resilience strategies that utility providers can implement to reduce wildfire risk. It is not clear, however, which of these strategies utility providers are being adopted on the ground. It is also not clear the extent to which utility providers are focusing on response-based strategies as opposed to long-term adaptation strategies, which has implications for the overall resilience of power systems and the communities they serve. This poster describes a project addressing this gap in knowledge by (a) developing a typology of wildfire resilience strategies available to utility providers, and (b) assessing the extent of adoption of these strategies on ground. In Phase 1, the project team identified over 300 actionable wildfire resilience strategies used by utility providers. Next, we characterized each strategy along two dimensions: (a) the degree to which the strategy  was “grid hardening” vs. “grid monitoring” and (b) the phase of the disaster cycle (i.e., preparedness, response, recovery, or mitigation) during which the strategy took place. This analysis yielded seven individual types. In the second phase of the project, we will validate the typology through a stakeholder workshop with utility providers.  In the third phase, we will assess the current state of adoption using a survey of utility providers within the Western Interconnection region as well as a document review of their mitigation and emergency operations plans. The results of this research will help inform what actions utility providers take to build their wildfire resilience capacity and transition from response-based (short-term) to adaptation-based (long-term) infrastructure and energy planning.

With the rise in frequency and severity of wildfire events, understanding evacuation behavior is instrumental for emergency planning. Since evacuations have a strong temporal component, the departure and reentry times of people affect evacuation time estimates (ETEs) and congestion. This poster describes a study that aimed to improve evacuation planning by analyzing the temporal patterns in evacuations and emergent behavior. More specifically, the study explored the movement of people out of hazard areas into host communities during the May 2023 Alberta Wildfires. Data were collected via traffic counts, mobile phones, or surveys; to overcome limitations of these sources, we accessed privacy-protected network mobility data from the TELUS Data for Good program. From this data, unique devices were located during the evacuation and reentry time periods to model curves in four communities in Alberta ranging in population from 500 to 8,000: Drayton Valley, Edson, Fox Creek, and Rainbow Lake. The resulting departure time sequences first show generally fast evacuations that best match Log-Normal and Log-Logistic functions, and slower multi-day, bi-modal reentry curves. Second, ETEs were 6 to 10 hours and reentry estimates were 23 to 29 hours, which could be integrated into evacuation simulations and emergency planning. Third, the results suggest stable evacuation “S-shaped” curves and functions that could be used for general wildfire evacuation planning, particularly for smaller, auto-centric communities. Finally, the research showcases the benefit of network mobility data as an alternative data source and the increasing need to consider host communities in evacuations.

Not all who respond to a natural disaster are formally trained in crisis response, yet many persevere in these challenging situations which are beyond their control. The extension community, particularly those from the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), are called upon for leadership in a crisis due to their community connections and effective leadership skills. EDEN is a resource and education member organization comprised of extension professionals from Land Grant institutions across the United States. Understanding the mindset and behaviors inherent to this population who continually navigate crises and support others through natural disaster response can inform training and development for other crisis leaders. This poster describes a study exploring the mindsets and behaviors among EDEN members who frequently operate in crisis environments. The study aimed to better understand the psychological capacities that support effective disaster leadership. In addition to a grounded theory study, this research measured the Stoic-like behavior of crisis and disaster response leaders using the Stoic Attitudes and Behaviors Scale (SABS). Stoicism, often misrepresented as emotional repression, is gaining popularity as a practical mindset for enhancing resilience and cognitive flexibility. Members of EDEN completed the instrument and findings from that dataset are presented. We discuss implications for SABS scores based on age, length of time in the field and engaged in crisis response, and region. These findings contribute to understanding the psychological preparedness of extension professionals and highlight Stoicism as a potentially valuable framework for developing future crisis leaders and enhancing resilience training programs.

Uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of geoscience and geohazard data, and visualizing this uncertainty can enhance how information is interpreted and used. The design of these visualizations, including choices related to color and visual emphasis, can significantly impact risk perception and confidence in forecasts. For instance, factors such as color saturation can influence how confident people feel about uncertain forecasts, and the choice of color can alter the interpretation of probabilistic data, such as ashfall predictions. Studies have shown that uncertainty visualizations in weather, wildfire, earthquake, climate change, and volcanic data can affect interpretation. However, there is a gap in research on how to best communicate geohazard uncertainties to diverse stakeholders, particularly in New Zealand. While there are numerous studies and reviews focused mainly on communicating uncertainty in political and health sciences, there is limited guidance on the best ways to visually communicate uncertainty about geoscience data. Different methods have been proposed, but geoscientists debate their effectiveness at conveying the intended message. Providing clear and effective visualizations of uncertainties is an ongoing and significant challenge across geosciences. In this poster, we present the results of a literature review and an online public survey on uncertainty visualization approaches and their different impacts on effectiveness. We share an initial set of guidelines developed for Civil Defence and planners to assist in communicating uncertain geoscience data in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Advancements in technology and real-time measurement information and images have made flood monitoring data increasingly available. However, flood management officials are struggling to interpret and apply the data to predict vulnerabilities and plan developments using information-based prediction techniques. Furthermore, there are relevant unmonitored sections, including most small streams, that may undermine the accuracy of actual vulnerability assessments. To address this challenge, we developed a real-time data-driven framework to co-create a web tool following a user-centered design approach, consolidating hazards to help decision-making and resilience planning. In the framework, the measured data-driven rainfall discharge nomograph and rating curves were used and future discharges and depths were predicted using AI-powered prediction model. We applied the framework to 14 small streams to predict vulnerabilities and evaluate the decision-making potential of this flood warning approach. To select web tool features and datasets, we held focus groups and one-on-one meetings with government officials. This poster describes a study evaluating the real-time monitoring data-based flood vulnerability prediction model applied in 14 small streams. Recently, we conducted a workshop in Seoul to test the framework where participants provided positive feedback. In the last phase of the research, we will develop a sustainability plan to ensure this framework is linked to the river warning system and usable for the whole river basin’s early warning system. We see the research as an example of successfully engaging real-time monitoring data toward developing flood warning tools that reduce flood damage and improve resilience planning on small streams in Korea.

The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires due to climate change pose health risks to migrant farm workers laboring in wildfire-prone regions. This poster describes a study investigating the effectiveness of air monitoring and safety protections for farmworkers in Sonoma County, California. The analysis employed AirNow and PurpleAir PM2.5 data acquired during the 2020 wildfire season, comparing spatial variability in air pollution. Results showed significant differences between the data from the single Sonoma County AirNow station data and that from the PurpleAir in the regions directly impacted by wildfire smoke. Three distinct wildfire pollution episodes with elevated PM2.5 levels were identified to examine the regional variations. This study also examined the system used to exempt farmworkers from wildfire mandatory evacuation orders, finding incomplete information, ad hoc decision-making, and scant enforcement. In response, we make policy recommendations that include stricter requirements for employers, real-time air quality monitoring, post-exposure health screenings, and hazard pay. In the face of escalating wildfire risks, our findings underscore two significant needs: First, local practitioners and policymakers should use localized air quality readings when developing evacuation orders and workplace guidance. Second equitable disaster policies are needed to protect the health of farmworkers, including those who are undocumented migrants and whose specific challenges are often overlooked.

Short-term exposure to wildfire smoke has been shown to adversely impact population health. Individuals who are incarcerated lack agency to protect themselves from exposure or to relocate during a wildfire. This poster describes a study whose objective study was to examine the association between wildfire smoke exposure and hospitalizations among people who are incarcerated in California.  Incarcerated individuals were identified using a range of codes in patient discharge data from 2010-2019 at California-licensed hospitals. A case-crossover design was employed using the patient’s zip-code to link hospitalizations to daily wildfire PM2.5. data. Exposure was defined as more than 1 day of moderate to high average wildfire smoke in the preceding 5 days. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the associations between wildfire smoke exposure and all-cause, cardiovascular, respiratory and injury hospitalizations. The results showed that 1-2 days with moderate to high wildfire smoke was associated with an increased odds of hospitalization for respiratory causes (OR (95% CI): 1.18 (0.92, 1.51) and cardiovascular causes (OR (95% CI): 1.23 (1.02, 1.48), and decreased odds of hospitalizations for injury causes (OR (95% CI): 0.92 (0.75 1.13). Moderate to high smoke exposure 3-5 days earlier was associated with decreased odds for all causes. Measures should be taken to protect incarcerated individuals who may be at increased risk of hospitalization from wildfire smoke during moderate wildfire events. Further research should assess protective measures taken in carceral facilities and the extent of wildfire smoke exposure within prison buildings.

Following the 2025 Southern California wildfires, the Public Health Extreme Events Research Network (PHEER) convened to identify the needs of the local research and public health practice community in California. To address the need for coordination and data-sharing among researchers, PHEER developed a wildfire health exposure ArcGIS web application. The objective was to establish a web-based geospatial platform to collect and curate critical health exposure measures. These measures include environmental exposures related to fires and wildfire smoke as well as the secondary hazards associated with contaminated soil, air, water, or debris. The map is a collection of freely available data from local, state, and federal data sources as well as data collected by researchers and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Natural Hazards Reconnaissance (NHERI RAPID) facility at the University of Washington. This poster describes the process of creating the health exposure map in ArcGIS Online, including coordinating with researchers and the NHERI RAPID facility to share data and creating features that allow users to download and utilize the data. Additionally, the poster explores the challenges and benefits of using an ArcGIS Online platform for a research coordination effort. Finally, the poster considers potential analyses and future research opportunities that could develop from the map.

This poster highlights the activities and changes at the University of South Carolina’s Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute (HVRI) from 2024-2025. In addition to onboarding a new Associate Director (and new affiliate researchers), HVRI continues to translate its science into practice through two major projects. We are partnering with the National Weather Service (Columbia, South Carolina, Forecast office) and the Midlands Public Health Preparedness Coalition, a regional healthcare and emergency management organization network, to improve heat health warnings to underserved populations. This collaboration ensures communication strategies align with public health needs and community risk perceptions, incorporates temperature-humidity thresholds behind official heat warnings, and assesses variability in heat-risk measures within the forecast region. In a second project, we are collaborating with investigators across three universities and multiple disciplines to assess how rural communities in Idaho, Nevada, and South Carolina are affected by drought, heat, and wildfire. The investigation includes how people in rural communities in these three states perceive these hazards, whether they experienced any changes in these hazards during their lifetimes, and what adaptations they have undertaken to adjust to the changing risks. In addition to our projects, we continue to promote outreach and engagement with state agencies to support their missions including short-term work placements in county emergency operations centers (EOC) during disaster activations such as Hurricane Helene. The poster also details recent project reports, white papers, student projects, and publications that might interest the community.

This poster describes a study investigating the influence of social capital on perceptions and use of COVID-19 contact tracing and vaccination apps in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus group data were analyzed to examine how bonding, bridging, and linking social capital shaped participants’ attitudes and behaviors regarding these apps. Bonding social capital, particularly family ties, emerged as a key factor influencing app use. While close family often encouraged adoption, family-based resistance due to conflicting beliefs was also observed. Bridging social capital, manifested through community awareness and institutional affiliations, facilitated app information diffusion and norm formation. Linking social capital, in the form of institutional connections, also played a crucial role in shaping app perceptions. However, key social barriers to adoption were identified, including privacy concerns, data misuse, and the spread of misinformation. Unequal access to technology and resources posed barriers, especially for marginalized groups, eroding trust and exacerbating inequalities. Strong community influence, collective care framing, and transparent communication were found to be social facilitators promoting app use. The findings suggest that leveraging these assets while addressing structural inequities is crucial for designing effective and equitable digital health interventions. This study advances knowledge on social determinants of health technology use and offers insights for policymakers, app developers, and community leaders to promote inclusive innovation. By highlighting the varied influence of social capital, this study contributes to theories of technology diffusion and disaster resilience.

Preparedness and response behaviors to earthquakes varied markedly across various socio-economic and political environments. This poster describes a study investigating how people interpret earthquake early warnings and identify appropriate protective measures in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, and the U.S. West Coast. This study examines the socio-political, technological, and cognitive aspects that affect differences in responses, emphasizing gaps in warning reception, understanding, and protective actions. This research assesses the impact of governance frameworks, socio-economic factors, and technological availability on preparedness results. A comparative analysis will be conducted of public expectations, warning receipt, and response patterns utilizing data from the World Bank Group’s Haiti Disaster Preparedness Household Survey (DPHS) and the U.S. Geological Survey ShakeAlert survey. The analysis examines the type of warning received, the method of delivery, the reliability of the source, and the obstacles to action. Using the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), the study will evaluate individual decision-making in response to alerts, while the Ready, Willing, and Able (RWA) framework will be utilized to examine institutional and technological barriers to the effective distribution of warnings. This study highlights significant findings from both systems, indicating that localized initiatives in Haiti may improve U.S. preparedness strategies. The findings seek to enhance earthquake early warning systems and guide culturally sensitive communication strategies, thus promoting more effective public responses to seismic hazards.

Effective risk communication is a crucial determinant for timely hurricane evacuation. Yet a fundamental gap exists between the risk communication strategies offered by local emergency management agencies (LEMAs) and the information sources on which the households rely. Despite numerous studies regarding hurricane warning systems, more knowledge is needed about how this communication mismatch influences evacuation decision-making across different geographical locations. this poster describes research attempting to identify the key determinants of LEMAs and households’ hurricane evacuation decisions and risk communication. The study addresses six central research questions regarding differences in risk communication channels, storm aspects involved in evacuation, regional variation of warning preferences, and the impact of spatial distribution on the timing of evacuation. This research critically argues that due to the misalignment of risk perception and communication strategy between LEMAs and households, the evacuation decision is delayed. The central hypothesis is that variations in storm interpretation, trust in warning sources, and geographic distribution significantly impact evacuation timing. A combined application of large-scale data, statistical, and spatial analysis was used to test the hypothesis. Results show that, whereas households rely mostly on national news (e.g., national news agencies and national news channels) and peer networks to understand risks, LEMAs mostly channels risk through official channels (e.g., emergency alerts, social media). Statistical models indicate that storm forecasts, geographic location, and residency in a FEMA flood zone influence evacuation timing. Hence, the research emphasizes combining official and unofficial warning systems to create region-specific risk communication methods.

Multifamily housing (MFH) is a significant portion of the rental housing stock and largely understudied in the disaster context. This poster describes research examining hazard risk, exposure, shorter-term disaster impacts, and longer-term recovery trajectories across MFH differentiated by property and owner characteristics. Hurricane Harvey’s impact in Harris County, Texas, was examined due to its extensive impacts, recency, and adequate time post-event to observe recovery outcomes. The lack of research is partially due to limited publicly available commercial real estate data. For this research, we obtained proprietary, longitudinal data with broad coverage which detailed property physical characteristics, quarterly occupancy rates and rents, and true ownership characteristics. MFH properties with market-rate units were the primary unit of analysis. Other publicly available, longitudinal data were incorporated. Key property- and owner-level characteristics were informed by the disaster and non-disaster real estate and housing literatures. We used a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models to examine how property- and owner-level characteristics were associated with being located in the flood zone, whether inundated and to what extent, shorter-term impacts and longer-term recovery measured using occupancy rates. Steep declines in occupancy rates were observed in flooded areas in the fourth quarter of 2017 returning to market levels in the second quarter of 2019. Results demonstrated a fairly even distribution of risk and exposure across properties and owners while ownership becomes more important for predicting recovery period outcomes. Lower-tier units were more likely to be occupied despite flood exposure masking actual property damage and habitability and highlighting demand for alternative and affordable housing in the post-disaster context.

Community fire adaptation and risk reduction are incredibly complex. They involve everything from the built environment to landscape stewardship and human behavior. How we can effectively build adaptive capacity into all of these components is a question of increasingly urgent importance. But both long-term research and practice have shown us that there is no one singular way for people to adapt to living with fire. So how do we bring all of our tools and varied expertise together to support communities in developing and implementing fire adaptation practices that are effective, impactful, and best tailored for local conditions? In response to this question, The Fire Adapted Communities Pathways Tool (FAC Pathways Tool) was developed jointly by a team of fire adaptation practitioners from the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network and social scientists from the University of Idaho. This Tool combines decades of research on community wildfire adaptation with practitioner-based knowledge and experience. It helps users select an initial “community archetype” and then suggests fire adaptation practices, tools, and approaches that have been successful in similar communities. Users can then select and prioritize practices based on local needs. The accompanying guide also suggests ways the tool can inform progress on fire adaptation across regions and identify the most effective programs, grants, or assistance for supporting community adaptation. Feedback from users indicated that the tool not only allowed them to develop a tailored menu of fire adaptation practices, but also increased their ability to do strategic planning and track project impact.

This poster shares observational data pertaining to family and community wellness gathered five weeks after Hurricane Helene’s impact in Western North Carolina. Researchers observed multiple pressing issues for survivors of Helene, particularly housing, access to health services, and the experiences of families with infants and young children. During this reconnaissance work, the research team visited various donation sites across the impacted area with a focus on assessing the stockpiles of infant formula and other items associated with childcare and feeding. We observed that there were plentiful collections of infant formulas, but limited supplies and information to assist with breastfeeding/chestfeeding. We also found expired infant formula at multiple sites. Our findings align with the other studies on infant and young child feeding in emergencies, which have highlighted the challenges encountered by parents who rely solely on formula or switch to formula rather than breastfeeding/chestfeeding during disasters due to a lack of means to sanitize necessary materials, such as bottles. We also observed healthcare access and housing disparities. For example, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Office in Boone, NC, was closed, and information was unclear about where families could go for support. People mentioned the trauma of driving past debris daily. Further, affordable housing remains scarce as many homes were damaged or completely destroyed due to flooding and landslides. These challenges suggest there may be a strenuous road ahead for family and community recovery in Western North Carolina.

Heat is the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the United States, a risk that is intensifying as climate change drives more frequent and severe extreme heat events. The impacts of heat exposure remain highly place-specific, shaped by a complex interplay of socio-biophysical conditions. Although the physiological link between heat and health outcomes has long been recognized, spatially targeted studies underscore the need for local-level analyses to account for intra-city variability in hazards and risk. Baseline climate plays a crucial role in shaping the temperature-mortality relationship. Most heat-health research has focused on humid and temperate regions, yet semi-arid cities like Denver experience distinct climatic patterns, including large diurnal temperature variations, low humidity, and intense solar radiation, which may alter heat-related health risks. Understanding how extreme heat affects mortality in these environments is critical for developing regionally appropriate adaptation strategies. This poster describes a study examining the spatial and temporal relationships between extreme heat and mortality in Denver, Colorado, from 1990 to 2019. Using a multi-scalar approach, we investigate how heat-related mortality patterns vary across neighborhoods and over time, identifying areas of heightened vulnerability. Findings contribute to the growing body of research on urban heat-health dynamics and offer insights for targeted public health interventions and climate adaptation strategies

Losses from natural hazards in the United States are rising as development concentrates more people in hazard prone areas. Pennsylvania has experienced frequent disasters like flooding, severe thunderstorms, and winter weather. This poster describes a study that used county-level data from the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS) to explore the economic and human costs from natural hazard events in Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2021. During this time period, losses from natural hazards exceeded $3.7 billion in the Commonwealth, with over $3 million in property losses and more than $19 million in crop losses. These hazards resulted in 440 fatalities and over 1,000 injuries for the time period. Losses from natural hazards show distinct differences among urban and rural counties in Pennsylvania. Quantification of the economic and human losses from natural hazards is critical for the development of strategies that effectively reduce the effects of natural hazards. Results of this analysis contribute to a better understanding of the geographic variability in natural hazard impacts and can serve as a first step toward a comprehensive evaluation of existing hazard mitigation, disaster assistance, and disaster recovery policies in Pennsylvania.

The Southeastern United States experiences a high frequency of rapid-onset hazards, such as tornadoes and flash floods, which pose heightened risks when occurring at night. Nocturnal hazards increase the odds of fatality due to reduced warning reception and response capacity, particularly among socially vulnerable populations who may lack access to alert systems or protective resources. This poster describes a study examining the social, behavioral, and environmental factors influencing nocturnal hazard warning reception and protective decision-making, with a focus on perspectives from National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and emergency managers in high-risk regions. Using qualitative methods, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with weather hazard professionals (17 meteorologists, 10 emergency managers) across 15 NWS County Warning Areas in the Southeast. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling, and interviews were recorded and transcribed and later analyzed using NVivo and inductive thematic analysis. Findings reveal four key themes: (a) public vulnerabilities and barriers to receiving and responding to warnings at night, (b) operational challenges in verifying and warning for nocturnal weather threats, (c) workforce limitations and resource challenges, and (d) the emotional toll on forecasters and emergency responders. These findings provide essential knowledge into the various factors that increase nocturnal rapid-onset hazard risk and vulnerability. They can also inform information ecosystems to support weather-related decision-making during nocturnal flash floods and tornadoes in the Southeast.

Research suggests that community-based, non-disaster volunteering can yield positive mental health outcomes by fostering camaraderie, instilling a sense of purpose, promoting mastery, and facilitating the development of coping strategies. However, engaging in disaster volunteering may negatively affect mental health due to volunteer-job-related role strain, exposure to traumatic disaster environmental stressors, and a lack of organizational and peer support necessary for effectively employing coping resources. While much of the literature on disaster volunteer mental health has focused on adverse outcomes, limited evidence suggests that the disaster environment may also foster positive mental health outcomes for volunteers. Survey data were collected between October and December 2023 through systematic social media recruitment and snowball sampling (n=110) to explore the juxtaposition in mental health among disaster volunteers. This poster will present the quantitative findings associated with the data revealing the correlation and significance of mastery, social support satisfaction, volunteer impact and efficacy, as well as volunteer fulfillment and recognition when correlated with self-reported levels of volunteer stress and volunteer depression. Open-ended survey responses will also be discussed within the poster and will provide depth and highlight volunteer motivations, coping mechanisms, and reintegration experiences associated with disaster volunteering within the United States. Finally, this poster will include a discussion of the limitations of this research, future research directions in the study of disaster volunteer behavioral health, and recommendations for nonprofit organizations and emergency managers who work with volunteers during the phases of disaster.

This poster describes a study investigating the role of loneliness in shaping disaster risk perception and preparedness behaviors among older adults, focusing on earthquake hazards in Japan. In the context of an aging population and increasing natural disasters, loneliness is a critical factor that may undermine individuals’ capacity to prepare for emergencies. We created an extension of the theoretical framework of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), the Japanese Older Adult Preparedness Model (JOAPM), adjusted for the cultural context of the study. We examined whether loneliness influences risk perception of earthquakes and, in turn, protective actions. A survey was administered online in April 2024 to a sample of Japanese adults aged 55 and older across four prefectures with high seismic risk. Participants provided data on demographic characteristics, disaster experience, levels of loneliness measured by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale, risk perception, and a range of preparedness behaviors, including household adjustments and insurance enrollment. Regression and mediation models assessed loneliness’s direct and indirect effects on preparedness measures. Results indicate that loneliness has a significant negative direct effect on disaster preparedness, with higher levels correlating with less preparedness. However, loneliness also indirectly increases preparedness through higher risk perception. Indicating loneliness can make people more aware of potential risks, leading them to take additional protective measures, but its direct negative impact on preparedness remains stronger overall. These findings illuminate the complexity of psychosocial factors in disaster response and the need for targeted interventions that address vulnerable older adults’ emotional and informational needs in disaster-prone regions.

Results indicate that loneliness has a significant negative direct effect on disaster preparedness, with higher levels correlating with less preparedness. However, loneliness also indirectly increases preparedness through higher risk perception. Indicating loneliness can make people more aware of potential risks, leading them to take additional protective measures, but its direct negative impact on preparedness remains stronger overall. These findings illuminate the complexity of psychosocial factors in disaster response and the need for targeted interventions that address vulnerable older adults’ emotional and informational needs in disaster-prone regions.

This poster describes a study aiming to provide an interdisciplinary perspective to the process of warning dissemination as well as evacuation orders during hurricane emergency situations across the United States. The project first reviewed meteorological and emergency management procedures for alert and evacuation warning decision-making and communication. Next, it reviewed commercial broadcasting dissemination, social media, post-storm data collection, and existing systems and agent-based models that employ findings related to this process. While a literary understanding of how emergency procedures work during a hurricane evacuation is essential to understanding the depth and purpose of these practices, we pair this with a systems model, inspired by dynamic programming and queuing theory, of the process in a manner more digestible to those with a computational background. As creating new technology to assist in the process of optimizing hurricane evacuations and emergency response remains a highly interdisciplinary problem space spanning emergency management, meteorology, computer science, sociology, and communications, this study hopes to compile important and current understandings of existing procedure from interdisciplinary, open-access sources for readers of a variety of backgrounds. With common knowledge and an operating systems model of the alert and evacuation dissemination process, we hope to lessen the barrier of entry to creating new technologies to assist with hurricane disaster response.

The rapidly changing landscape of our field presents urgent challenges for research communication and collaboration. Simultaneously, there is both a strong commitment and an array of tools to create networks within and between research efforts that are stronger than ever. We share one program within the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) that includes all four areas of the Workshop’s goal of envisioning our shared future: advancing research and its applications; sharing hazards information; spanning boundaries and establishing partnerships; and educating and mentoring the next generation. In Fall 2023, the HRRC formed the Research Initiatives program with the following goals: (a) to strengthen research agendas, (b) to increase visibility of faculty as experts in their areas of expertise to the public and media, and (c) to develop and nurture professional networks. The initiatives are led by HRRC Faculty Fellows, prioritizing early career scholars, who help coordinate and communicate their area of research, associated research questions, and policy implications. Participation in the Initiatives is open to researchers at all levels both within and outside the HRRC and the University, with a long-term goal of strengthening inter-center and inter-university collaborations. This poster presents information about the three inaugural HRRC Research Initiatives: Prisons, Public Health, and Disasters; Planning the Future of Evacuation; and Planning for Climate Adaptation and Multi-Hazards Mitigation. We share lessons learned from the first year of the Research Initiatives program and seek to facilitate discussion with Workshop participants about collaborating through these specific initiatives, along with the broader potential of these collaboration hubs.

Effective disaster preparedness is critical for community resilience. However, motivating individuals and measuring preparedness remains a significant challenge. Gamification, or serious games, apply game design elements in non-entertainment contexts and offer an innovative strategy for enhancing engagement and knowledge retention. Traditional preparedness techniques often suffer from low engagement due to their perceived applicability and lack of immediate reward, which can provoke insufficient preparedness levels. Given the specific vulnerabilities and experiences of older adults and people with disabilities, this issue carries a heightened level of significance. This poster describes research exploring the potential of gamification to improve knowledge acquisition, behavioral patterns, and decision-making of older adults for disaster preparedness. Considering the ethical implications of disaster research, by employing a virtual reality disaster game, we can test and measure participants’ behavior in a controlled, safe, and customizable environment. The proposed gamified experiment incorporates elements like pre- and post-surveys, kit preparation tutorial, disaster messaging, virtual technology preference, and interaction points, decision challenges, and scenario-based simulations to evaluate participants’ decision-making patterns utilizing theoretical frameworks, such as Proactive Action Decision Model (PADM), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST). Implementing a human-centered design approach, we anticipate that the gamified experiment will increase participants’ knowledge of disaster risks and their preparedness levels. This research has the potential to transform disaster preparedness training by providing a more engaging, effective, and sustainable approach to building community resilience to natural hazards. By leveraging the power of games, we can empower individuals to take proactive steps to protect themselves and their families.

Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change. To what extent does the public see this connection between these disasters and climate change? Do their perceptions of the connection impact their preparedness and mitigation actions? Analysis of surveys of California residents living in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has shown that personally experiencing natural disasters and extreme weather is correlated with climate change fears, such as the belief that climate change is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires. However, personal experience is filtered through media usage habits, ideology, and partisanship. Further, greater concern over climate change increases the likelihood of engaging in disaster preparedness and mitigation. With respect to wildfires, barriers to engaging in mitigation efforts include lack of knowledge of what to do, cost of mitigation measures, and not knowing where to find resources. Among those who have taken action, the most common measures include maintaining a defensible space, keeping a fire extinguisher and other tools available, and creating fire-resistant zones using building materials and landscaping. The need for preparedness and mitigation has become more urgent as the United States experiences a growing number of deadly, billion-dollar disasters from the changing climate. In 2024 alone, there were 27 such disasters, with 586 fatalities. Because more than half of those who have not engaged in mitigation point to a lack of knowledge or ability to find resources, public education and outreach play an important role in improving household preparedness and mitigation.

When disasters destroy housing, survivors must decide where and how to rebuild. While housing is critical to the restoration of community functioning, limited studies have explored how affected households make decisions about rebuilding their homes. The literature we do have, however, has highlighted the critical role that place attachment—or the functional and emotional bonds individuals form with place—plays in residential decision-making. This research, however, has historically focused on floods and hurricanes, thereby limiting the generalizability of findings to other hazards like wildfires that have substantial, longstanding impacts on the natural environment. This poster describes a study aiming to further build an ecological model of place disruption.  The study addressed research gaps using photovoice, a rarely employed method in disaster research that shows promise in understanding place-based phenomena. The study included 70 participants who had lost their homes to wildfire since 2015 in Butte, Lake, Sonoma, and Plumas Counties in California. Relying on both inductive and deductive coding approaches, we found that place attachment was magnified by the fires, and played a significant role in how households navigated their post-wildfire residential decision-making process. Other factors, such as social ties and risk perceptions, also were significant drivers of whether households returned and whether they implemented mitigation measures. Likewise, we saw how practical concerns, such as the price of insurance, difficulties acquiring permits, and property taxes, factored prominently into residential decision-making. We validated the research findings in a community workshop. The results present opportunities for recovery policies to support the return of displaced populations. 

During the 2024 hurricane season, Florida was struck by two major hurricanes, Helene and Milton, within just two weeks. These consecutive disturbances posed additional challenges to coastal communities, particularly for local businesses. In recent years, recurrent hazards and rising sea levels have led to the diminishing availability of commercial land, forcing business relocations and ultimately disrupting the social infrastructure of local neighborhoods. This poster describes a study aiming to anticipate the decline and emergence of commercial areas in coastal communities amid ongoing environmental transitions. We propose an AI-based urban land use modeling approach with a particular focus on predicting economic and commercial land dynamics. Through this model, we seek to identify the timing, locations, and contexts of commercial land loss and growth. Using data about historical human activity, changes in land use patterns, and the built environment, we developed a graph-based spatiotemporal deep learning model to advance commercial land use modeling. We applied the model to scenario planning, providing insights to inform practical planning strategies that enhance the long-term resilience of commercial areas. Our model successfully predicted the lifespan and transformation of commercial land use under scenarios of recurrent and intensified hazards. Findings from scenario simulations offer actionable guidance for coastal planners in economic development and spatial planning, helping them prepare for future risks. Additionally, the model is adaptable for analyzing various types of hazards across different geographic regions.

The region of Greater Houston, Texas, has experienced significant recent flooding due to multiple catastrophic storms and hurricanes. The intensity of these flooding events have been exacerbated by urbanization in the region. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) identify high-risk 100-year flood zones, these maps often lack updates to account for recent land-use and hydrological changes, missing key flood-prone areas. This study evaluates urban development trends in both FEMA-designated and federally overlooked flood zones using FEMA and Fathom flood data, alongside the USA Structures Database and Historical Settlement Data. Federally-overlooked zones—defined as areas identified by Fathom’s U.S. Flood Map but absent from FEMA’s maps, often house a disproportionate number of low-income and socially marginalized residents. Findings reveal that over 26% of Greater Houston’s structures are at flood risk, with rapid development in flood-prone areas during the 1950s to the 1970s and continued growth in overlooked zones, notably in Chambers and Fort Bend counties. The lack of flood insurance mandates for these federally overlooked zones leave residents highly vulnerable, amplifying socio-economic disparities. The absence of flood risk awareness and regulatory guidance historically, combined with unchecked development, poses long-term financial risks for individuals and communities, especially for marginalized groups lacking resources for flood recovery. Improved flood mapping and comprehensive risk assessment are crucial for informed urban planning to limit future development in high-risk zones and reduce disparities in flood vulnerability.

Wildfire evacuations have proven challenging in the Wildland-Urban Interface due not only to alert and warning issues but also to variability in hazard and risk awareness. Wildfire evacuation simulations that include warning messages can enhance understanding of the probability of various situations occurring, thereby influencing the effectiveness of specific evacuation procedures. Current research on wildfire evacuation simulations relates to fire behavior, traffic patterns, and perceptions of protective actions; however, few studies investigate the impact of mobile emergency messaging on wildfire evacuation patterns. The aftermath of the Marshall Fire underscored the need for ongoing research into the relationship between wildfire spread and traffic congestion, with considerable attention to how emergency alerts may have influenced outcomes. Integrating wildfire behavior models to predict spread based on conditions with traffic patterns provides insights into potential evacuation behaviors. Evaluating and modeling these factors individually has produced valuable knowledge about each factor separately, establishing a foundation for assessing the variables collectively. Given this gap, interviews were conducted with emergency managers from local emergency management offices to understand concerns about using Wireless Emergency Alerts for wildfire evacuation communication and to identify potential methods for evaluating the impact those messages might have on evacuations. The questions posed addressed various topics related to the evolution of a wildfire from the disaster management and communication perspective, aiming to gain insight into the processes and procedures associated with hazard identification, emergency communication, and evacuation. Findings support the National Weather Service's initiatives to release fire warnings and evacuation alerts in the future.

The 2018 Carr Fire was one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, significantly impacting the greater Redding area. Recovery from wildfire events is complex and extends beyond physical rebuilding, requiring an understanding of multiple dimensions of resilience, such as place attachment and community cohesion. The Community Capitals Framework provides a valuable lens for assessing recovery through various forms of capital, including social and environmental capital. Social capital—including bonding, bridging, and linking supports—can strengthen local capacity for recovery, while environmental capital—represented by place attachment, natural resources, and ecosystem conditions—shapes how individuals perceive recovery. This poster presents a case study examining how social and environmental capital relates to perceptions of long-term recovery among residents and decision-makers in the greater Redding area. Qualitative interviews were conducted with both groups to explore their experiences, values, and priorities in the post-fire recovery landscape. Thematic analysis identified key differences and commonalities between their perspectives. Preliminary findings suggest that residents with strong community connections and social support perceive recovery more positively. In contrast, decision-makers tend to frame recovery in terms of infrastructure repair and policy-driven mitigation. Similarly, perceptions of environmental recovery vary, with residents prioritizing visible regrowth and restoration of ecological functions while decision-makers emphasize hazard reduction and land management strategies. These findings underscore the importance of integrating social and environmental considerations into long-term wildfire recovery efforts. Understanding how different groups define and assess recovery can help bridge gaps between community needs and policy actions, ultimately informing more effective and inclusive resilience planning.

Planning for the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge depends on effectively communicating risks and potential adaptation strategies to stakeholders and decision-makers. However, engagement may be hampered by limitations in conceptualizing impacts or solutions using two-dimensional representations. Furthermore, planners seek to provide messaging that motivates action through a sense of agency rather than inaction due to a sense of anxiety. In the current moment, visualization strategies seek to engage a variety of audiences by finding common ground. As part of an ongoing research agenda, our team partnered with the City of West Palm Beach, Florida, to create an immersive experience in virtual reality (VR) to present flooding risks in public parks along an intracoastal waterway. Participants also saw how adaptation infrastructure, including nature-based solutions, could be implemented. We surveyed participants to collect data about their experience and preferred solutions. This poster will share the methodology and results of this work. In VR, as opposed to a tablet/360 video experience, people found the adaptation strategies depicted to be more effective. In addition, their emotional response was higher and people were more receptive to being informed about future strategies to mitigate the impacts of flooding in their community. This poster will also share preliminary results of a follow-up project. For the current project, the team is producing a VR experience that demonstrates flooding impacts around cultural and natural spaces and neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The United States declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in 2017. That same year the nation experienced a historic number of costly climate and weather disasters with 16 disasters whose costs were more than $1 billion. By 2024 the total number of billion-dollar disasters had reached 27. These concurrent emergencies create barriers for people who are undergoing medication treatments, including people who use drugs and are seeking medication treatment for addiction. Individuals with substance use disorders are considered more susceptible to the effects of disasters. To better understand disaster-associated barriers for people who use drugs, we conducted key informant interviews with advocates, state government officials, community health workers, and opioid treatment program (OTP) leaders. An interview guide was developed to assess the impact of disasters and emergencies on opioid treatment services. Eleven interviews were completed using the Zoom platform. Interview transcripts were hand coded to inductively identify themes relating to barriers in receiving opioid treatment during disasters. Four themes were identified: stigma, communication barriers, challenges to secure housing and transportation, and issues regarding policies and practices of OTPs, for instance, insurance coverage. The ways in which each theme related to disaster preparedness and response were identified to inform the development of policies and practices to address gaps. Disasters and emergencies disrupt OTPs, which operate in a highly regulated environment that prevents adaptive capacity during disasters. It is critically important to include OTPs in program and policy adaptations in pre-disaster and preparedness planning.

Rural areas, which are at higher risk for floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires, have fewer resources for emergency preparedness and lack emergency transportation and communication infrastructure. Services for domestic violence victims have long been limited in rural areas due to geographic isolation and limited access to legal assistance, shelter, and health services. We interviewed the executive directors of state and territorial domestic violence coalitions. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Delaware Institutional Review Board. Themes were identified using inductive and deductive coding. During a disaster, safety and privacy can be difficult to maintain in congregate settings where residents may receive emergency assistance. However, in rural areas, the maintenance of safety and privacy is further complicated as victims are likely to personally know emergency responders, healthcare providers, and others involved in investigating reports of domestic violence. Emergency sheltering during disasters is especially difficult in rural areas without hoteling and with other unique challenges (e.g., responsibility to care for livestock). In rural areas, internet connections are often unreliable and internet fluency is limited, which can cut off a vital source of disaster-related information as well as access to services for domestic violence victims. Disasters create other challenges for domestic violence victims in rural areas. When transportation, communication, and other infrastructure—like shelters—are disrupted, service providers and survivors face unique obstacles. Equitable access for rural victims during disasters will require concerted efforts to close both currently documented and anticipated gaps as disasters become more frequent and severe.

Previous studies on warning responses have underscored that households’ decisions regarding evacuation, departure timing, logistics, and destinations are key factors shaping hurricane evacuation behaviors. However, compared to the other three aspects, the timing of evacuation departures has received relatively limited attention in existing references. This poster describes a study aiming to address this gap. The study re-analyzed hurricane evacuation data collected from 1,383 coastal households in Texas and Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, or Ike. Each dataset includes respondents’ geographic locations, sociodemographic characteristics, evacuation resource needs, past hurricane experiences, perceptions of storm conditions, expected storm impacts, perceived evacuation impediments, and actual departure times. Although no single model consistently explains departure timing across all three hurricanes, the findings suggest that variations in how respondents perceived storm intensity and uncertainty were primary factors influencing when they chose to evacuate. In general, households located on barrier islands or in high-risk areas tended to evacuate earlier—except during Hurricane Katrina, where this pattern did not hold. Additionally, in some hurricanes, concerns about logistical impediments contributed to delayed departures. The results also indicate that resource-related concerns only marginally moderated the effect of uncertainty on departure timing. Future research is needed to further explore the mechanisms driving evacuation timing decisions, which could help improve evacuation traffic planning and management.

Landslides threaten human life and infrastructure in mountainous regions, particularly in areas with complex geological conditions and frequent seismic activities. The Hunza section of the Karakorum highway region in northern Pakistan is highly susceptible to landslides due to its rugged terrain, active tectonics, and changing climatic conditions. Traditional landslide hazard assessment methods often fall short of providing timely and accurate predictions, necessitating the integration of advanced technologies.

This poster describes a study exploring the application of machine learning algorithms in conjunction with time series Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data to enhance landslide hazard assessment. Time series InSAR Sentinel-1 data offers high-resolution ground deformation measurements, which are crucial for identifying areas prone to landslides. Machine learning models, specifically Random Forest and Logistics Regression and Convolutional Neural Networks are trained using historical landslide data, geological maps, and InSAR-derived deformation rates. These models learn patterns and relationships between various factors contributing to landslide occurrences, enabling the prediction of potential landslide locations. Our results demonstrate a significant improvement in landslide hazard prediction accuracy compared to conventional methods. Specifically, 132 potential landslides were detected via time series InSAR and verified with previous reports. These potential landslides were then incorporated with 15 landslide-triggering factors for hazard mapping. The Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Convolutional Neural Networks models achieved accuracies of 92%, 93%, and 96%, respectively, using the Receiver Operating Characteristic method. The hazards model developed in this study would assist authorities in future urban planning and natural hazard disaster management.

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has significantly improved landslide monitoring and detection, which are crucial for disaster prevention and mitigation. This poster describes research employing the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PS-InSAR) method for landslide detection and monitoring. Our research aimed to study landslides along the Karakorum Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Our investigation identified a total of 29 active landslides across the study area, demonstrating that a substantial portion of these phenomena are clustered at altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 2,400 meters, with gradient inclinations varying between 10° and 30°. The geographic distribution of these landslides aligns closely with zones of heightened tectonic activity. Additionally, wavelet analysis reveals that the displacement patterns of these landslides display minor nonlinear oscillations, which are likely associated with variations in reservoir water levels, human influence, and monsoon rainfall. The results revealed deformation velocities ranging from 61 mm/year to -95 mm/year (VLOS) across the study area. The PS-InSAR-derived deformation maps were overlaid with the landslide inventory, demonstrating a strong correlation between detected deformation zones and known landslide areas. This poster underscores the effectiveness of PS-InSAR for landslide detection and monitoring in complex terrains, providing valuable insights for landslide risk assessment and mitigation strategies in Gilgit-Baltistan and similar regions.

This poster shares lessons learned from the organization and implementation of a resilience policy hackathon. Designed as a novel and creative approach to stakeholder engagement for disaster preparedness, the hackathon took the form of a fast-paced collaborative workshop that convened a diverse set of stakeholders to engage in the co-creation of resilience-oriented policy pilot projects. The event, co-developed by community resilience researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the University of Washington, engaged more than 70 participants from across disciplines and sectors, including students, academics, community-based organizations, nonprofits, municipal departments, and state- and county-level agencies. The hackathon built upon seven participant-generated “seed” projects to answer our key research question: How can the development of resilience pilot projects expand the range of tools available to emergency managers in a disaster? These seed projects represent potential interventions that anticipate disruptions and serve to enhance community resilience both during a disaster as well as during normal times. Projects addressed sectors ranging from transportation to energy storage to communications and were further developed during the hackathon. Project teamwork and the resultant project “pitches” were documented and now populate a publicly accessible repository for future reference and development. We share lessons learned from the planning and implementation stages of the hackathon; these include: (a) opportunities and challenges raised by the hackathon format; (b) participant experiences and feedback; and (c) examples of resilience policy development facilitated by the hackathon. We also share recommendations for leveraging the hackathon concept to facilitate stakeholder engagement in disaster preparedness planning.

The 2024 Noto Earthquake in Japan struck the Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures just before sunset on New Year’s Day.  Thousands of coastal residents were evacuated after a tsunami warning was issued At least 500 people died as a result of the quake and its aftermath. Noto is a remote, mountainous area with an aging population; many evacuated people were relocated further inland to ensure they received adequate medical care. The confluence of a major earthquake and tsunami warning, a nighttime evacuation scenario, and an aging, remote population led to a complex response operation. Studies of nighttime disasters, while scant, have shown that people respond differently at night; only limited research has examined distributed sheltering operations. This poster describes research aiming to build on the Protective Action Decision Model. We employed a mixed methods approach to collect data from key stakeholders involved in the evacuation and sheltering operations and displaced households to understand the response to the event. While data collection is still ongoing, our interviews with key stakeholders have shown that much of the sheltering operation was improvised, relying on guidance from medical professionals and existing resources to develop a system in real-time that prioritized lifesaving efforts for displaced individuals. Additionally, evacuees were often relocated multiple times before reaching temporary housing. Our household survey is ongoing but will focus on modeling the evacuation process and identifying factors affecting each relocation step. Insights from this study will help validate instruments used by emergency managers to respond to complex disasters and develop effective policies across the West Coast of the United States and worldwide to better respond to complex disaster events.

DesignSafe is the cyberinfrastructure component of the National Science Foundation's Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) collaboration. DesignSafe supports the natural hazards research community by providing access to high-performance computing, data analytics, and Geospatial Information Systems tools. It is housed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. DesignSafe also provides a CoreTrustSeal certified data repository for researchers to store, curate, and publish data that is then made citable and available for other researchers to reuse.

Recently, record-breaking heavy rainfall and super typhoons have been occurring frequently across South Korea, leading to a sharp increase in casualty and infrastructure damage. Recognizing the need for a fundamental shift in disaster management systems and response strategies, the South Korean government has been restructuring its disaster management framework to better adapt to climate change. In line with this effort, there is a growing demand to improve disaster management guideline standards set by the responsible governmental agencies to account for climate change. This poster describes a study examining a methodology for estimating design rainfall by incorporating climate change scenarios, which are scientifically predicted projections of climate-related disaster factors. Furthermore, it proposes improvements to the Disaster Management Guidelines to ensure the applicability of disaster prevention infrastructure related to natural hazards such as heavy rainfall and super typhoons. Additionally, this study presents a comprehensive approach to enhancing guidelines for disaster prevention infrastructure.

There remain significant areas of opportunities in the approaches of the environmental health and justice fields, yet alternative approaches have yet to penetrate mainstream research and practice. Not only does this lack of inclusion of other approaches engender, intersect with, and often compound hazards and disasters, but also produces suboptimal results and entrenched inequities, particularly for the most vulnerable populations—women, low-income communities, and racialized communities. In response to these areas of opportunities, I posit the Black Feminist Environmental Health Riskscape Framework as a starting point to name and address upstream systems and their manifestations that render some worthy and others worthless. This interdisciplinary conceptualization integrates a critical social theory, Black feminist thought, with environmental health disparities and racial stratification models to produce a comprehensive understanding of environmental health, hazard, and disaster issues, which can also be applied as an analytical framework. The issues in environmental health and justice and hazard and disaster fields are interdisciplinary, and they require interdisciplinary answers—or in this case, starting points to chart a course towards equity for all. The Black Feminist Environmental Health Riskscape Framework answers the call by offering us a lens to ask the right questions, address the right people, and use a critical eye to identify areas of opportunity that get to the root cause of prevalent social and health and well-being issues.

The issues in environmental health and justice and hazard and disaster fields are interdisciplinary, and they require interdisciplinary answers– or in this case, starting points to chart a course towards equity for all. The Black Feminist Environmental Health Riskscape Framework answers the call by offering us a lens to ask the right questions, address the right people, and use a critical eye to identify areas of opportunity that get to the root cause of prevalent social and health and well-being issues.

Youth are not often exposed to potential careers in emergency management, public health, or urban planning, which limits the workforce trajectories for these fields that play large roles in climate change and hazard response and recovery. We developed a summer camp to expose high school students to various disciplines, including emergency management, public health, and urban planning, and empower them with the knowledge and skillset to explore such careers. The camp provides a holistic approach to understanding and addressing climate change challenges by integrating perspectives and promoting the development of essential skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, which are crucial for future leaders in any field. Camp DASH (Disaster, Advocacy, Sustainability, and Health) is an interdisciplinary educational program hosted by the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center on campus at Texas A&M University. The camp partners with nonprofit Charity Productions Inc. and is funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Math’s Gulf Research Program. The first year of Camp DASH in 2024 focused on heat as the primary hazard, as students could see heat's impact on their communities through a peer perspective. Student activities included photovoice methods, learning how art and comics affect preparedness and risk communication, designing land use policies to address hazard risk, as well as visits with practitioners in the region to understand career and educational trajectories. The poster will highlight these activities and key lessons from hosting a youth camp related to hazards and disasters on a higher education campus.

Public inquiries into recent severe weather events have shown a need for improvement in communication during geohazard and severe weather events. This poster describes a study examining public knowledge of the emergency management system in Aotearoa (New Zealand), with a focus on awareness of the roles and responsibilities of individuals, communities, and official agencies during disaster events. Using a survey, it explored perceptions of preparedness and capacity across various groups—ranging from personal networks of family and friends to local organizations such as religious and sports groups to and national-level responders including police and civil defense authorities. The survey results revealed gaps in public understanding and highlight opportunities to strengthen emergency communication and planning. This poster presents key findings and their implications for enhancing disaster preparedness and response strategies. The survey had 22 questions. One set of questions asked respondents to identify which agencies should be involved in a fictitious wildfire scenario. Specifically, we asked respondents to identify which agencies should be responsible for 16 tasks that the government needs to carry out during the disaster’s four stages of reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. These scenario-based questions allowed us to identify if there were any disconnects between what the public expects the government to do during disaster and the reality of what the government mandated tasks are. We also queried what actions and roles the respondents were willing to do to support response efforts, which allowed us to portray how members of the public view their role in the emergency management system. This data will be shared with decision-makers and emergency responders to allow for improvements in the system.

Flooding unevenly affects vulnerable communities, exacerbating existing socio-economic vulnerabilities. Traditional flood mitigation funding models, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), often prioritize cost-effectiveness over equity, leaving vulnerable populations underfunded. This poster describes research evaluating how integrating equity principles into flood risk management models influences resource allocation and risk reduction outcomes. Using the Coastal Hazard, Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience (CHEER) project’s Stakeholder-Based Tool for the Analysis of Regional Resilience (STARR) framework, the study simulated 10 funding scenarios grounded in distinct equity principles. These scenarios are applied to census tract-level data in North Carolina, a state with high flood risk and significant socio-economic disparities. The study addressed the research question: How do different equity priorities and optimization objectives affect the allocation of mitigation funding and the distribution of risk reduction outcomes? Metrics such as the Gini Coefficient, disparity ratios, and correlation analyses were used to assess equity and efficiency in funding distribution. Geographic mapping and correlation charts visualized outcomes, highlighting overlaps and gaps in resource allocation. The findings provide informed strategies for designing equitable flood mitigation policies. By linking theoretical equity principles with practical policy applications, this research contributes to the scholarly discourse on distributive justice and offers tools for policymakers to address systemic disparities. The study’s broader implications include fostering resilience in vulnerable communities and advancing inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies. This work represents a significant step toward operationalizing equity in flood risk management, ensuring that funding mechanisms are both effective and just.

While temperatures are increasing in urban areas across the globe, Arizona's urban corridor has some of the hottest and fastest warming cities. These communities must ensure that their future development and operations are planned to meet growing heat risks. Our team is combining and applying complementary approaches to evaluate the extent and quality of heat resilience planning in seven diverse cities across the state of Arizona. We used the Plan Quality Evaluation for Heat Resilience, Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ for Heat, and social network analysis of plan cross-referencing to analyze 21 plans from Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, Flagstaff, Casa Grande, Mesa, and Nogales. We find that all seven cities are taking steps to address heat, but they vary in terms of how comprehensive these efforts are, and all the cities have clear opportunities to improve their planning. In this poster we will introduce the different evaluation approaches, highlight some of the key findings, and discuss the potential for co-producing these evaluations with local officials and integrating them into their plan development processes.

The Homelessness, Housing Precarity, and Disaster Network (HHDN) aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, policymakers and key stakeholders—including those with lived experience of homelessness—to discuss and work together on topics concerning homelessness, housing precarity, hazards, and disasters. In 2020, the Natural Hazards Center CONVERGE Facility released a call for working group applications on topics pertaining to COVID-19. We submitted a proposal concerning housing precarity and COVID-19 and were subsequently awarded. From this award, we developed a research agenda and framework. Our group has since evolved with a broader focus on all disasters and continues to evolve to become a more sustainable network of international scholars, students, key stakeholders, and practitioners engaged in work at the intersections of homelessness, housing precarity and disasters. To achieve our mission and work toward our vision, HHDN does the following: (a) creates outputs (e.g., op-eds, policy briefs, presentations, academic papers) to inform ethical research, practice, and/or policy on topics concerning housing precarity and disasters; (b) provides mentorship to early-career scholars and students interested in working in this space; (c) mobilizes and builds momentum and visibility for policies and actions that will enable homeless and precariously housed people to find resources, enhance their well-being, and facilitate their ability to exit homelessness and housing precarity; and (d) provides insight and expertise to sign onto or advocate for policy and calls for or against actions that may reduce or cause harm, respectively, to prevent further marginalization and increased disaster vulnerability among precariously housed communities.

This poster summarizes research and development conducted by the Pacific Urban Resilience Lab and the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (ndptc.hawaii.edu) on the visualization and assessment of damage from wildfires, storms, and other hazards.  In addition to comparing different equipment, software, and platforms, the integration of 360 imagery with drone, aerial, and satellite imagery for the purposes of situational awareness, damage assessment, response and recovery functions are described and evaluated.  Several examples from recent disasters are included as well as a discussion of field capture, data management, and working with communities. The poster focuses on the intersecting requirements and perspectives of researchers, emergency managers, responders, recovery support professionals, and impacted communities. Issues regarding sensitive, confidential, and proprietary data and the use and sharing of information on disaster impacts are discussed. In addition to technologists, the poster intends to inform hazards and social science researchers, planners working on recovery and those interested in mitigation, and adaptation of environments and communities damaged by diverse hazards and threats.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program is one of the funding streams that becomes available when a disaster receives a presidential declaration. The program’s intent is to address recovery gaps in low-income communities underserved by private insurance and existing disaster programs. Yet not every disaster that receives a presidential declaration receives CDBG-DR funds. This poster describes a study aiming to identify the characteristics of declared disasters that increase the likelihood of receiving CDBG-DR funding. Using a quantitative approach, the research analyzes which disasters receive CDBG-DR funding and identifies key factors influencing allocation decisions. Understanding the implementation of CDBG-DR is essential, as it aims to reduce vulnerabilities linked to housing tenure, housing condition, socioeconomic status, age, and race—factors that exacerbate inequalities and hinder recovery. The research is currently ongoing, but should be completed by early spring with interpretations to follow shortly thereafter.

Known as the urban heat island effect, the increased frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat waves in urban environments are the deadliest and most widely experienced consequence of climate change. The distribution of urban heat is uneven: many of the most severe heat islands coincide with predominantly Black neighborhoods that have been marginalized through histories of racist zoning practices, including the process of redlining. Academic studies have linked the legacy of historic zoning to the disparate impact of heat on already-marginalized residents. We investigated three case studies of city governments in Chicago, New York, and Richmond that seek to address the inequitable impact of extreme heat through the frameworks of Just Transition (working towards just socio-environmental outcomes in the transition away from fossil fuel energy sources), Reparative Planning (repairing past injustice), and utilization of Emergent Strategy (grassroots efforts). We comparatively evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks in planning for equitable urban resilience to extreme heat. The Reparative Planning case study centered necessary histories of injustice, but did not commit to implementation. Our Just Transition case study charted out paths towards a vision of the future, but lacked a present foundation of action and energy from the community. We found that linking a city plan addressing extreme heat to emergent strategies already underway was an effective way to support equitable implementation of the plan by formalizing a relationship with community-led efforts which are borne of collective histories and mobilizing towards a collective future.

Farming communities in Florida’s Big Bend and Suwannee River Valley Region have experienced multiple hurricanes and wind events recently.  Hurricanes Helene, Debby, and Idalia, for example, caused widespread damage to agricultural infrastructure and disruption to farming operations. In some cases, these losses have permanently changed the way some growers and producers will operate moving forward. This research poster submission will highlight the current challenges faced by Florida’s rural farming communities due to storms since 2023. The data was collected as part of a National Science Foundation-funded project and collaboration between the University of Nebraska, the University of Florida, and Texas A&M University. This poster will present the results of surveys, interviews, and site visits to impacted farms and discussions with local agricultural organizations. Findings include methodological considerations for disaster research in agricultural regions, challenges farmers and producers encounter in repairing or replacing damaged structures, the compounding role of multiple hurricanes, the available assistance programs for rural farming communities, and the role of insurance in future decision-making. This research contributes to our understanding of the risk profile of these communities to be able to make recommendations for future resilience.

This poster describes a study exploring the complex interplay between urban walkability, heat exposure, and social vulnerability in the context of climate change and urban heat mitigation. Socially vulnerable communities are often more exposed to heat due to a lack of resources to avoid or mitigate high temperatures in summer. By its nature, walking increases exposure to the ambient environment compared to vehicle-based transportation or remaining indoors, yet increased exposure to the outdoor environment during hot seasons may raise health concerns. This study addressed the concerns of higher heat exposure in walkable communities by questioning whether socially vulnerable communities are at greater risk of heat exposure in walkable built environments. To examine this, we first identified areas at risk of higher heat exposure due to both elevated surface heat and a walkable built environment. We then investigated if walkable areas in socially vulnerable communities tend to have higher surface heat through a series of multinomial logistic regressions. The National Walkability Index, land surface temperatures, and the American Community Survey data were used for variable measurements. The results indicated that lower-income and minority populations tend to live in areas with higher heat and greater walkability, while more affluent communities are situated in walkable areas with lower heat exposure. This study suggests that socially vulnerable communities could suffer more from extreme heat due to the walkable built environment. Policymakers should consider highly walkable communities with greater heat exposure as priority sites for heat mitigation strategies such as green infrastructure and cool pavement installation.

The physical environment in which a community is embedded plays a substantial role in shaping its resilience to natural hazards. As an important force behind the physical environment, urban planning is thus an activity with much potential to promote resilience. This is particularly so when planning policies are coherently oriented toward this purpose. However, when the policies are not integrated, as empirical evidence has shown is commonly the case, they can instead weaken resilience. Recognizing the importance of integrated plans, numerous studies have been conducted in recent years to evaluate plan integration. Nonetheless, no study has touched on the context of Indigenous communities, which are oftentimes burdened by disproportionately high vulnerability. This poster describes a pioneering methodology to examine if land-use and development plans are integrated for community hazard resilience in the context of Indigenous communities. This extension is based on the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ —a well-established methodology for integration evaluation. Our study tested this methodology in an Indigenous community and its surrounding localities in the southern United States. We found that the land-use and development plans in the Indigenous community did integrate concerns about community flooding resilience and worked coherently toward that aim. This was particularly the case when the plans addressed current flood risks. By comparing the results between the Indigenous community and the surrounding non-Indigenous communities, we also assessed if the plans are prioritizing the tribe when promoting resilience as well as the policy reasons behind that. The methodology can also be applied more broadly by other Indigenous communities interested in evaluating plan integration.

One of the challenges for disaster management is to promote public awareness of potential hazards and increase public engagement in preparedness and resilience. This poster describes research proposing and testing a new method for enhancing public engagement: the personalized measurement of water usage at home. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disaster preparedness guidelines recommend that households store at least 1 gallon daily per person in the household. However, individuals may differ in their water consumption based on their daily routines. We designed a method to accurately measure water consumption by functionality, including cooking, dishwashing, showering, and other various routines. Such methods utilized at-home tools such as tubs, water bottles, and timers. Then, this method was introduced to students at West Linn High School in West Linn, Oregon, to engage them in the discussion of the potential 9.0 subduction zone earthquake that might impact the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Preliminary results demonstrate that discussing the measurement of individualized water consumption is an effective way for opening up the conversation about earthquake preparedness. Some volunteered to measure and report their water consumption at home for this research. Analysis of the data revealed that water usage was much higher than the CDC recommendation of one gallon daily per person in the case of hazard scenarios. Therefore, this opens up further discussion about how to reduce water consumption to align with CDC guidelines when in hazard scenarios.

When it comes to K–12 disaster recovery, existing literature is scarce. The research that exists is split between the various types of disasters that affect schools, such as natural disasters, public health events, and violence. Despite growing concerns about school shootings, research on these events and the steps to recovery is still limited. A broad examination of school recovery using an all-hazards approach will help identify general K–12 school recovery needs, which can be used to inform school shooting recovery needs and practices. To explore this, we conducted a systematic review on the existing K–12 disaster recovery literature followed by interviews of school leadership, mental health practitioners, community groups representing survivors and families, and law enforcement and emergency managers to assess their recovery practices and answer the following questions: How do schools get back to “normal” after an unanticipated, catastrophic event? What are the challenges facing schools in disaster recovery, and how can they be specifically addressed? Using the all-hazards approach, we included cyber-attacks, natural disasters, public health events, and violence in our project. A systematic search of K–12 disaster recovery literature yielded 44 results (one on cyberattacks, 15 on natural disasters, eight on public health events, 11 on violence, and nine unspecified) to be synthesized and analyzed. Interviews with individuals involved in school recovery regarding their experiences revealed the needs and challenges schools face when recovering from disaster. Relevant findings regarding K–12 recovery and how we can use shared practices to inform school shooting recovery will be discussed.

The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System rapidly detects earthquakes and sends alerts to people and organizations in California, Oregon, and Washington before strong shaking arrives. Yet despite the significant infrastructure needed to detect earthquakes and distribute warnings, ShakeAlert information gets stale quickly. In the minutes, hours, and days after a ShakeAlert Message is released, rapid estimates from ShakeAlert are supplanted by a big family of earthquake information products from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS). USGS and ANSS products include the Earthquake Notification Service, ShakeMap, ShakeCast, Did You Feel It?, Aftershock Forecasting, and more. ShakeAlert partners can use these products to understand earthquakes more accurately and more comprehensively. This allows them to better serve their customers, stakeholders, and communities.

Following an earthquake, near-real-time information provides valuable data on potential impacts like economic losses and fatalities to the public and decision-makers in the emergency management, humanitarian, finance, and other sectors. However, earthquake impact information is often designed without formal user input or a focus on impacted communities, resulting in information that is not necessarily suited for a variety of disaster management decisions. This poster describes how we investigated user needs for disaggregated risk metrics. Following initial focus groups with a broad set of users from various sectors, we developed a mockup showing additional metrics of exposure and loss that highlighted impacted communities in a way that supports users’ tasks. We then used an earthquake scenario with a targeted group of users to gain feedback on the mockup through a usability testing workshop. Workshop participants included nine emergency managers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), the American Red Cross, and Innovative Emergency Management. Following qualitative analysis, workshop results revealed that disaggregated risk metrics could support emergency managers’ tasks following an earthquake disaster. More broadly, this research highlights how a human-centered design process can create meaningful interactions with stakeholders who can ultimately use products to support impacted communities after future earthquakes.

Effective response to disasters requires extensive coordination and collaboration between responding agencies, the management of which is a significant challenge in emergency response. Coordination and collaboration efforts are complicated by unexpected circumstances that arise from a disaster, giving rise to emergent multi-organizational networks of collaborations between those who may not have worked together before. Previous literature has discussed task completion as a motivation for collaboration during disaster response, in which organizations may choose to collaborate to join forces on shared tasks or because their tasks depend on the completion of others’ tasks. However, much of the previous literature has been based on description and/or utilizes surveys and interviews conducted in a post-disaster setting that are vulnerable to recall and interpretational biases. Thus, there is a need to quantitatively analyze the role of tasks in collaborations using data extracted from records naturally produced during a disaster response cycle. This poster describes work exploring the extent to which an organization’s task performance shapes its collaborations in response to a natural disaster. We use machine-learning based natural language processing (ML-NLP) methods to extract information on each organization’s tasks as reported across thousands of situation reports written during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. We then perform social network analysis to understand how task structures impact collaborations within a system of complex organizational interactions. In addition to the practical implications this work may have on informing organizational training efforts, this work tests the efficacy of modern ML-NLP methods in extracting high-quality data from hazards-related texts.

The North Central Texas Community Resilience Project was implemented to strengthen the capacity of the 16-county North Central Texas Council of Governments to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The project includes a whole community approach to emergency planning and collaboration. This poster will cover the three phases of the project that engages local leaders, emergency managers, and volunteer organizations to strengthen partnerships at the local level. The process and framework in developing training sessions, community education campaigns, toolkits, and other resources will be showcased. By engaging directly with communities, gathering valuable data, strengthening partnerships, sharing resources, and highlighting best practices, the project lays the groundwork for a safer and more resilient North Central Texas.

As climate change intensifies and accelerates the frequency of disasters, frontline communities endure compounded material and emotional losses, yet grief’s role in shaping resilience remains overlooked. Though often framed as an individual, psychological phenomenon with negative impacts, grief is an inherently relational and structurally embedded process. However, scholarship has largely maintained conceptual silos between personal loss, acute disaster grief, ecological grief, and grief from structural inequality, treating these forms of loss as distinct rather than deeply interrelated. This fragmentation limits our understanding of how grief intersects with communal resilience in disaster-affected communities. This poster describes work employing a critical, intersectional sociological lens, combined with case study analysis of grief-aligned organizing in frontline climate justice communities—such as The Descendants Project in Louisiana’s River Parishes—to explore how grief-aligned practices shape social cohesion and adaptability. This study seeks to show that when understood as a relational process of complex interconnectedness between personal, ecological, and structural loss, grief fosters communal bonds and sustains long-term resilience, challenging dominant narratives that frame grief as a disruptive individual experience. By reframing grief as a generative force, this research advances theoretical and practical approaches to climate justice, offering insights for fostering relational economies and care-based systems in the face of recurring disasters. Ultimately, this work underscores the importance of integrating intersectional-ecological grief literacy into disaster preparedness and recovery frameworks, highlighting grief’s potential to bridge difference and fortify community networks in an era of climate crisis.

Often, the people who best understand a given hazardscape are those who live within it. Yet, tools for equitable hazard mitigation are typically constructed top-down with little community input. To address this gap, our research has explored connections between the environment, built infrastructure, and the local community in order to support disaster resilience in Southeast Texas. Specifically, we sought to gain local perspectives on hazards, community resilience, and changing risk in Southeast Texas in the context of flooding and air quality. We conducted semi-structured interviews with local government officials, nonprofit leaders, and community leaders. The interviews covered topics related to flooding and air quality at the cross street-level across three areas: (a) hazard impacts, (b) recovery, and (c) mitigation. We also asked participants to describe equity and social vulnerability in their own words. With the results of the interviews, we aim to develop and tailor tools for equitable hazard mitigation (e.g., hazard maps and social vulnerability indices) that reflect local realities and facilitate the implementation of local mitigation measures. To this end, we have completed ethics approval and training across our six-institution project; developed, tested, and revised an interview guide to glean community perspectives on targeted topics; trained interviewers; and have completed 13 interviews with community participants. Next steps include continuing interviews and beginning interview processing, including transcription and qualitative coding. As preliminary observations, participants have emphasized improving quality of life as a high priority and aged storm sewer infrastructure as a cause for concern.

The state of New York is the fourth-most populated state in the country and a “kitchen sink” when it comes to disruptive weather phenomena. Some of New York’s primary weather risks include tornadoes, hurricanes, lake effect snow, wildfires, and extreme rainfall. Due to this large spectrum of weather hazards, New Yorkers have an increased susceptibility to a wide variety of weather-related impacts. The combination of New York’s dense population and diverse assortment of meteorological risks presents a unique challenge to state officials, whose job it is to protect New Yorkers’ lives and property. To address this challenge, the New York State Weather Risk Communication Center (SWRCC) was created to build stronger partnerships between meteorologists and New York public sector organizations. This includes state, county, and local officials from emergency management, transportation, parks and recreation, public health, and other sectors. SWRCC also has a strong partnership with the five National Weather Service (NWS) offices that serve the state. These partnerships are designed to support operations and promote preparedness and mitigation activities to make New York more resilient to a changing climate and more extreme weather. SWRCC provides detailed and timely weather information and forecasts to partners using research-based communication strategies to enhance the clarity, impact, and depth of weather forecasts. This poster provides a comprehensive overview of the SWRCC’s daily operations, members, partnerships, projects, collaborations, and future goals.

As natural hazards are becoming more frequent and severe, insurance companies are withdrawing from high-risk areas in the United States, leaving homeowners without adequate financial protection. While parametric insurance presents a potential solution to homeowner financial protection by offering rapid payouts based on predefined hazard triggers rather than traditional damage assessments, its adoption by communities and households remains limited due to multiple factors, including potential misalignment between what payouts are provided and what communities expect. This poster describes a study aiming to explore the feasibility of parametric insurance at the community level, working with households and key community stakeholders (e.g., business owners and city planners) in Sarasota, Florida, to understand the challenges they may face in adopting these solutions. Using a combination of surveys, interviews, and “think-aloud” protocols, we are investigating these community members’ decision-making in response to a hypothetical parametric insurance product for the Sarasota region. The expected results of this study will provide a baseline understanding of the gap between existing parametric products and community expectations. This framing will inform the development of a preliminary parametric insurance policy, which will be refined based on community feedback on policy design and risk visualization. If successfully implemented, this model could extend financial protection to high-risk areas by covering a broader range of disaster-related losses beyond physical damage and providing near-instantaneous payouts, ensuring timely assistance and crucial relief for disaster-affected households.

Multiple agencies across the federal government participate in preparedness, response, and recovery for hazards including weather and meteorological events. For many of these hazards, the federal government has instituted interagency coordination programs or committees that assign specific roles to individual agencies before, during, and after crises. For example, the National Hurricane Program is an interagency partnership across the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center. Despite the importance of these programs, they have not previously been analyzed comparatively. In this poster, we examine domestic federal interagency coordination programs and committees for preparedness, response, and recovery to hazards. We consider 13 types of natural and human-caused hazards including hurricanes, windstorms, landslides, asteroids, oil spills, earthquakes, and space weather. We review the structure of these hazard coordination programs and committees, including their governance, integration of science and technology throughout the decision-making process, authorities and guiding documents, and role of federal and non-federal agencies. Based on this analysis, we identify best practices and challenges across existing federal interagency hazard coordination programs and committees. Taken together, these insights may inform future efforts to design or improve interagency coordination programs for natural hazards.

Severe weather profoundly affects nearly every aspect of life in Texas. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, proactive planning and tailored mitigation strategies will be essential to strengthening community resilience and ensuring equitable protection for all residents. To examine how past hazards influence preparedness and response to severe weather, community surveys were conducted in Hays County, Texas, following the Memorial Day Flood in 2019 and Winter Storm Uri in 2021. Of the 128 completed surveys, most participants were White non-Hispanic, with women making up the majority of the sample. The average participant age was 53, and more than 40% held a bachelor’s degree or higher. Nearly half reported a household income below $53,413. The study found that residents of color were 96% less likely than White residents to change how they prepared for future hazard events or make home modifications to improve flood resilience following these severe weather events. Participants who experienced flooding during Winter Storm Uri were five times more likely to implement flood resilience measures in their homes. Moreover, those who experienced long-term effects from the storm were seven times more likely to adjust their preparedness strategies. Fifteen participants relocated due to flash flooding, none of whom were residents of color. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions that address demographic differences in preparedness behaviors and expand access to mitigation measures, particularly for residents of color in Hays County.

Accomplishing wildfire risk reduction during recovery requires working across scales and over time to ensure that both vegetation and built environment are contributing to reduced risk—that is, homes are hardened and have adequate defensible space, communities are protected by fuel breaks, and that risk from vegetation is limited through landscape-level vegetation management. However, the time period after disaster can also be challenging as multiple organizations, funders, and programs simultaneously work on post-wildfire recovery and risk reduction, typically with limited focus in their geography or scope. Determining the ultimate outcomes of these investments requires not only understanding individual program implementation, but also how investments in housing and vegetation combine to reduce overall risk. In this poster, we present a mixed methods study that assesses post-fire risk reduction programs and outcomes in Sonoma and Lake counties in northern California. We first used semi-structured interviews (n=20) with government staff and community leaders to inventory the programs, funders, and organizations responsible for local risk reduction efforts. Interviews also served to document program characteristics, such as funding availability, timing, and implementation mechanisms, as well as barriers, facilitators, and lessons learned when implementing post-wildfire mitigation. Next, we used stochastic wildfire modeling simulations (i.e., ELMFIRE) at the neighborhood level to examine the effectiveness of these risk reduction interventions, focusing on home hardening, defensible space, and landscape-level fuel treatments. Finally, we integrated these modeling results with practitioner perspectives on program outcomes and efficacy to inform tradeoffs and opportunities transferable to wildland-urban communities facing similar challenges.

Heat-related illnesses are becoming an increasingly urgent public health issue, exacerbated by urban heat island effects, climate change, and an aging population. Unlike other rapid-onset disasters such as hurricanes and floods, heat-related risks vary significantly based on individual factors like age and preexisting health conditions, making personal decision-making crucial for prevention. However, research on how to effectively encourage individual preventive behaviors remains limited. This poster investigates the application of behavioral science approaches, including cognitive biases and nudges, to mitigate the risks of heat-related illness. Behavioral science interventions have been applied in disaster preparedness and healthcare to promote preventive actions. By examining practices based on behavioral science approaches in disaster and medical settings, we demonstrate their potential to reduce risks of heat-related health risks. We also discuss its potential key challenges, including ethical considerations and the sustainability of behavioral interventions.

Effective flood mitigation requires adequate, reliable, and equitable funding sources. While federal disaster programs fund a significant portion of flood mitigation activities, there has been limited scientific knowledge on how these funds are distributed across communities. Addressing distributive equity in public flood mitigation funding is one way to ensure that individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic status, can improve their living standards. This poster describes research evaluating equity in the allocation of Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) funds in coastal states along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico from 2000 to 2020. We analyzed trends in funding and project distribution, distinguishing between coastal and inland counties, and assessed the relationship between funding, flood exposure, and social vulnerability. We used Bivariate Local Indicators of Spatial Association and robust spatial error models to achieve the following: (a) to indicate those counties with high vulnerability and exposure which also received low funding and (b) to identify factors contributing to funding disparities. Our analysis indicated a positive association between funding and the percentage of non-Hispanic Black population exposed to flooding, while a negative association exists for counties with higher Hispanic populations. Furthermore, we found that the economic value of disaster damages significantly influenced grant allocation, with most funding coming from HMA’s post-disaster mitigation program. Allocating funding after disasters is particularly problematic for areas with high social vulnerability and flood exposure that have experienced few major disasters, resulting in insufficient funding for proactive mitigation. We recommend a more balanced approach to funding that prioritizes both pre- and post-disaster mitigation to address vulnerabilities before they are exacerbated by flooding.

The escalating frequency and severity of wildfires in the American West present compounding risks to water security for communities that rely on surface water from forests and rangelands. Literature on compounding hazards demonstrates that wildfire impacts are multifaceted—interacting with factors like sedimentation, chemical contamination, and infrastructural vulnerabilities—to create cascading challenges for safe and reliable drinking water. Traditional risk assessments often fail to capture these layered interactions and the critical insights provided by local communities. This poster examines how community-engaged transdisciplinary research can bridge this gap by integrating robust compounding hazard frameworks with participatory, localized approaches. Focusing on the wildfire-water nexus from headwaters to treatment facilities, the study leverages insights from compounding hazards literature to assess how multiple hazards coalesce and amplify these water security risks in Oregon and Washington. Through participatory scenario planning, co-development across disciplines of risk assessment tools, and an interactive dashboard, this research aims to provide decision support systems that empower water utilities, policymakers and various community and academic stakeholders to anticipate and mitigate compounding wildfire impacts. By synthesizing scientific modeling with community-based knowledge, this work underscores the importance of adaptive, integrative governance models in addressing the multi-layered risks outlined in compounding hazard studies. Ultimately, the findings contribute to a proactive, equity-focused framework for resilience planning, ensuring that strategies for wildfire preparedness and water security are both scientifically informed and deeply rooted in community experience.

Kindergarten through 12th grade (K–12) schools in the United States frequently experience natural or human-made hazard events. After the hazard event occurs, schools and their respective communities go through the process of recovery. This poster describes research examining that difficult process by asking different stakeholders to reflect on what recovery means to them, especially in light of the hazard events some have experienced firsthand, as well as what “being recovered” entails from their perspective. For example, school superintendents may have a stronger focus on infrastructural recovery or the expedient resumption of academic activities, while school psychologists may focus more on the social and emotional recovery of students. Data for this research was collected through qualitative interviews with school administrators and educators who have experienced hazards in their respective school districts, alongside interviews with subject matter experts and government workers involved in school safety and emergency management. In examining different understandings of recovery, I am able to highlight differences between stakeholders. Moreover, I offer analysis and discussion on what a more broadly agreed upon understanding of recovery may look like for American K–12 schools that are currently navigating the recovery process, and for those that will experience recovery from hazards in the future.

The demand for humanitarian assistance is at an all-time high due to the increasing frequency and severity of disasters and climate-related crises worldwide. Consequently, humanitarian aid workers (HAWs) must be ready to meet the growing demands of providing aid to affected populations. Often, HAWs travel from their duty stations to disaster-stricken regions (host countries) to deliver immediate relief, as local humanitarian workers and government services can become overwhelmed during large-scale disasters. These HAWs are frequently assigned to short-term deployments, known as “temporary duty assignments” (TDY). I interviewed 14 international HAWs with experience in such deployments. Participants perceived their preparedness as adequate before deployment,; however, once in the disaster area, they realized its limitations. Their understanding of preparedness was insufficient to cope with ever-changing post-disaster situations and social contexts. They also felt that organizational training, orientations, and briefings were inadequate to meet real disaster needs and were not tailored to the type of disaster or deployment location. Additionally, deployment decisions were often based on availability rather than specific skills and expertise. Given the demanding nature of TDYs, HAWs faced physical danger, in some cases life-threatening, and mental burnout. These findings indicate that TDY preparation should be re-envisioned as a planned, progressive, and deliberate process rather than a reactive approach. Both individuals and organizations must invest resources to ensure future HAWs feel safer and more secure during international deployments.

In recent decades, the risk of wildfires has increased across many areas, with larger and more severe wildfires occurring in regions prone to such events, but also in less traditionally fire prone countries. Concurrently, ecological restoration has become increasingly popular in many regions, and has also been explored as a contributing solution to natural hazard mitigation. Ecological restoration activities cover a broad range of strategies, including rewilding, with most aiming to restore degraded landscapes or lost ecological processes. Currently, there is a knowledge gap in scientific understanding surrounding the effects of ecological restoration on potential fire risk. In this study we aim to empirically quantify the impacts of ecological restoration on wildfire behaviour metrics, using case study sites across Europe (England, Spain) and North America (Colorado, Maine). WildfireAnalyst, a wildfire behaviour simulator from Technosylva, was used to simulate wildfire behaviour across each of these sites for two fuel load scenarios, ‘present day’ and ‘future’. Future scenarios were created using altered fuel load compositions reflecting stakeholders visions for the site 25-50 years in the future, through the process of ecological restoration. The simulations were ran under two separate weather conditions, moderate and extreme. Four indices were compared across the scenarios; burned area, rate of spread, fireline intensity and flame length. Preliminary results indicate that ecological restoration measures may decrease the explored fire behaviour metrics within the case study sites.  

According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, floods were the most common and destructive natural disasters from 1995 to 2015, accounting for 43.4% of all such events and posing significant risks to lives and property. With climate change increasing the frequency and severity of floods, there is a growing need for real-time damage assessments to improve disaster response. While previous studies have applied machine learning (ML) to predict flood damage, their integration into emergency response systems remains limited, and their interpretability is often lacking. This poster presents a study of a novel ML framework for near real-time flood damage prediction, addressing these gaps by combining ensemble learning with interpretability and optimization techniques. Using geo-tagged data from the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the U.S. Census Bureau, the model employs Random Forest (RF) and Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM) to predict property-level flood damage. It mitigates class imbalance with SMOTETomek resampling and enhances reliability through Bayesian Optimization (BO). To enhance interpretability, Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) is used to identify key factors influencing predictions. The study focused on flood-prone Louisiana, integrating property characteristics, flood hazard exposure, and socioeconomic factors. Results showed high predictive performance, with F1 scores between 0.92 and 0.98. The SHAP analysis highlighted income, unemployment, and floodwater depth as key contributors, enhancing model interpretability. This research contributes a scalable, interpretable, and high-performance ML-based solution to enhance flood disaster response and resilience, addressing critical gaps in real-time flood damage assessment and decision-making.

Research has shown that older adults are disproportionately more likely to die during disasters than younger adults. In places such as Mashiki Town, where the damage from the Kumamoto Earthquake was particularly severe and people were adversely affected, there was an increase in the number of people requiring long-term care after the disaster. This poster describes a study focused on the suspension of home care services after a disaster. The study examined the COVID-19 pandemic which caused a suspension of long-term care services in the same way that some natural disasters do. To study the impact, we surveyed 2,803 care managers responsible for affected older adults in Kumamoto Prefecture. The survey was conducted from March 6 to April 25, 2023. Among the 419 respondents (14.9% response rate), 320 respondents who managed long-term care services for older adults in their homes were selected for analysis. The findings indicate that the suspension of day-care services contributes to older adults experiencing a decline in physical and cognitive functioning, higher levels of depression, and a decline in quality of life. The suspension of home-visit services led to deterioration in their physical functioning. In addition, the suspension of long-term care services increased the burden of care on family caregivers. It is evident from the findings that early restoration of long-term care services is essential to reduce the vulnerability of older adults living at home in the event of a disaster.

Eastern North Carolina has experienced three major hurricanes—Floyd (1999), Matthew (2016), and Florence (2018)—providing a unique opportunity to examine policy learning across disaster cycles. This poster describes a study integrating three theoretical frameworks: Sense of Coherence (SOC), which evaluates whether environments are comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful to residents; Conservation of Resources (COR), which explores how individuals maintain and protect their resources during stress; and Event-Related Policy Learning (ERPL), which looks at how disaster ​events open up opportunity windows for policies ​to adapt. Using policy analysis, spatial mapping, and in-depth interviews with long-term residents and policymakers, the study evaluates whether recovery efforts demonstrate instrumental, political, and social learning. It explores how redevelopment policies influence survivors'’ perceptions of stability, confidence in future resilience, and capacity for self-recovery. A central focus is to identify which anchors of coherence—such as housing security, infrastructure improvements, and community networks—have been enhanced or neglected in post-disaster planning. This research will assess the effectiveness of past policy adaptations and their impact on community resilience. Through this analysis of policy evolution alongside lived experiences, this study aims to contribute valuable insights to disaster recovery and urban design, ensuring that future redevelopment rebuilds physical environments in a manner that fosters long-term well-being, community resilience, and preparedness. The findings also hold significant implications for improving disaster governance and planning strategies in vulnerable regions.

Efforts to quantify the economic costs and loss of life due to landslides in the United States and its territories are hindered by inconsistent methodologies, gaps in reporting, and a lack of standardized data collection. Although landslides occur frequently and cause substantial damage and fatalities each year, these limitations obscure the full extent of their effects, undermining efforts to accurately assess risks and develop effective mitigation strategies. In response to the National Landslide Preparedness Act, which emphasizes a need for systematic identification and assessment of landslide hazards across the United States, we present the first iteration of a national landslide damage and loss database. This database consolidates information on economic and human losses from 193 records, including U.S. Geological Survey publications, state geological survey reports, and other sources. Together these provide a critical foundational dataset as well as a framework for future landslide loss reporting. Our efforts highlight shortcomings in data collection and reporting standards, illuminating the complexities of documenting variable landslide effects. From 1868 to 2024, recorded landslide-related damages total at least $38.1 billion (adjusted for inflation), though this is a minimum estimate from an incomplete database. Continued database development and reporting standardization are essential for improving loss assessments and informing mitigation efforts. This work has been strengthened through interagency collaborations with federal, state, and local partners. By advancing this foundational data collection, we aim to enhance data consistency, improve risk communication, and support informed mitigation strategies nationwide, establishing a critical resource to improve understanding of landslide hazards and their impacts.

Hurricanes increasingly threaten coastal communities, necessitating robust preparedness measures to mitigate the impacts. Existing research has largely concentrated on broad hurricane preparedness measures—such as overall risk perception, evacuation intentions, and general resource availability. However, gaps persist in understanding how regional disparities influence household emergency plans for hurricanes and hurricane evacuation. This poster describes a study addressing this gaps through an integrative analysis of 680 household surveys, historical storm trajectories, and multi-layered geospatial data (regional/state/county levels), explicitly examining spatial patterns in hurricane evacuation plan design and their operational implications. Findings revealed geographic divergence in household emergency plans: North Atlantic Coastal counties exhibited the lowest emergency plan adoption rates (e.g., 42% with designated routes) yet report the most optimistic perceived evacuation time (mean = 59 minutes). Counterintuitively, plan adoption further reduced perceived evacuation time; a pattern that was inverted in South Atlantic and Gulf Coast counties where higher preparedness (e.g., 65% with plans) coexisted with prolonged perceived evacuation times (mean = 175 minutes). Despite 70% plan adoption, Florida’s longer perceived evacuation time highlights the challenges posed by urban density, high storm frequency, and unique geography. These disparities underscore the need for hurricane emergency plans and evacuation strategies to be tailored to local conditions, linking geographic risks to behavioral patterns to effectively mitigate hurricane impacts through spatially targeted resilience strategies.

Wildfires are one of the most destructive natural hazards and have the potential to cause severe damage to vegetation, property, and most importantly, human life. To minimize these negative impacts, it is crucial that wildfires are detected at the earliest possible stage while they are still small enough to be easily extinguished or contained. Currently, wildfires are detected using tower-based cameras, but these cameras are sparsely located and costly. Satellites are also used, but they provide low spatial and temporal resolution. A cost effective and scalable solution for early wildfire detection is to utilize a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are capable of monitoring high wildfire risk areas and autonomously determining the location of small fires. The key idea is to bring together real-time data gathered from various sensors onboard the UAVs (i.e., chemical sensors, wind sensors, thermal cameras, and visible light cameras with smoke model predictions. Operationally, the UAVs would first be guided to the locations where fires are likely to exist and then the sensors would confirm the presence of the fires. A major advantage of this solution over current methods is that the chemical sensors can detect smoke before it becomes visible to cameras or humans. The UAVs will be capable of autonomously tracking the chemical concentration gradients of smoke plumes, which can lead them to the fires producing the smoke. The location of the fires can then be reported by the UAVs to fire officials so they can manage the fires as early as possible.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the southeastern United States between September 27 and October 19, 2024, causing severe transportation disruptions that impeded access to healthcare facilities. This poster describes research investigating the impact of these disaster-induced barriers in Florida, focusing on socially vulnerable populations disproportionately affected due to inadequate infrastructure and healthcare access. Utilizing county-level data, this research integrated social vulnerability indices, transportation network characteristics, and healthcare access metrics to assess transportation delays in reaching medical services post-disaster. A combination of factor analysis and regression modeling showed that reduced access to gas stations and hospitals and greater distances to medical facilities significantly contributed to prolonged congestion and hurricane-related delays. Findings also showed that counties with higher proportions of elderly and economically disadvantaged individuals experienced the greatest delays, exacerbating healthcare accessibility challenges. The regression model results indicated that for every additional operational gas station per 10,000 residents, congestion-related delays were reduced by 33 minutes, while hurricane-related delays decreased by 21.5 minutes. Similarly, each additional hospital per 10,000 residents lowered congestion-related delays by 2.3 hours and hurricane-related delays by 1.6 hours. These insights emphasize the critical role of emergency transportation infrastructure in mitigating disaster-related healthcare access barriers. The study underscores the need for policy interventions, including improving emergency transportation strategies, increasing hospital and gas station availability in disaster-prone areas, and incorporating transportation access variables into social vulnerability assessments.

The United States faces significant challenges in managing natural disaster debris, which encompasses building materials, vegetation, and other waste generated by disaster events such as floods or fires. Despite significant investments in post-disaster recovery, little is known about the intricacies of disaster debris management, particularly how different social, ecological and economic factors are prioritized in the decision-making process and how those decisions impact residents and businesses. This poster describes research investigating the different socio-economic and environmental factors that may influence debris management decisions and their impact on community recovery. We examined stakeholder and community perspectives and experiences regarding disaster debris management in Florida after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with contractors and local officials to identify hurricane debris management perspectives and challenges. Qualitative data analysis revealed several factors that inhibited effective disaster debris management including communication and collaboration across agencies and communities, health and environmental concerns, and perceived inequities in resource distribution and technological support. These findings will contribute to the disaster debris management planning in the coastal communities in Oregon that could be impacted by a Cascadia Subduction zone earthquake and tsunami. We will discuss how these interviews are being incorporated into geospatial analysis and products that will inform disaster debris management planning for this region.

Self-efficacy is a well-known predictor of emergency preparedness behavior, yet the relationship between emergency preparedness collective efficacy (i.e., an individual’s belief about their community’s ability to prepare for hazard events) and actual preparedness behavior remains understudied. This poster describes a study using an extension of Protection Motivation Theory and the Risk Perception Attitude Framework to examine how collective efficacy moderates the relationship between the perceived threat of disasters and emergency preparedness behaviors. A nationally representative sample of 501 participants completed an online survey through Prolific. A multiple linear regression was conducted to assess the effects of perceived threat, collective efficacy, and their interaction on preparedness behavior. Results suggest that collective efficacy indeed moderates the relationship between perceived threat and preparedness (t = 2.59, p < .01), such that there is a positive relationship between perceived threat and preparedness at high levels of collective efficacy that attenuates at low levels of collective efficacy. These findings suggest an extension to Protection Motivation Theory and the Risk Perception Attitude Framework to address the effect of collective efficacy on preparedness behavior. In addition to the theoretical implications, these findings suggest that interventions to increase collective efficacy may be one strategy to promote preparedness behavior.

As climate change intensifies environmental risks, historically underserved communities like East Biloxi, located in Biloxi, MS, face disproportionate exposure to hazards, including household hazardous waste (HHW). To address this challenge, the Knights of Peter Claver (KOPC) Workforce Development has launched an initiative to empower residents with the knowledge and resources needed for safe HHW management, reducing risks before and during disasters. This program combines education and hands-on engagement to train students and community members to identify, handle, and properly dispose of hazardous waste. A comprehensive HHW curriculum is in development, with early phases piloted through workshops, training sessions, community meetings, and gatherings. Additionally, workforce development students are conducting community surveys to assess HHW presence and build safe storage solutions for homeowners in need. As part of this process, KOPC is conducting evaluations to assess success at accomplishing learning objectives and the use of provided storage units. This poster will showcase the program’s structure, key evaluation findings, and participant feedback while highlighting its broader impact on environmental justice and resilience. Aligning with the conference theme, “Envisioning Our Desired Future,” this initiative demonstrates how proactive HHW management and equitable access to educational environmental resources can strengthen community resilience. By equipping residents with essential knowledge and tools, KOPC is contributing to a safer, healthier, and more sustainable future for East Biloxi and beyond.

The creation of the Puerto Rico Disaster Research Network (PR-DRN) was driven by the heightened focus on Puerto Rico's vulnerability following Hurricane Maria in 2017. In response, the team at the University of Central Florida’s Puerto Rico Research Hub (PRRH) conducted a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed articles on disasters in Puerto Rico published between 2014 and 2024. This search led to the development of a database that catalogs studies on a range of natural hazards that Puerto Rico faces. Although the search focused on the decade from 2014 to 2024, the majority of the articles were published between 2017 and 2019. Much of the existing research is centered on short-term post-disaster assessments, often overlooking long-term recovery processes and the socio-economic impacts of recurring disasters and compound crises. There is a significant gap in comprehensive studies that address multiple natural hazards, such as hurricanes, flooding, and earthquakes, within the unique geographic and socio-political context of the island. Additionally, interdisciplinary research that connects environmental and disaster science with policy, community resilience, and community-led adaptation and mitigation strategies remains underexplored—but represents the future of the field. This project culminated in the creation of the PR-DRN, a platform designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and networking among researchers. The initiative aims to enhance future research and disaster management strategies in Puerto Rico by connecting experts and stakeholders across institutions and disciplines, facilitating collaborative efforts to build a more resilient future for the island.

The frequency of coastal floods around the United States has risen sharply over the last few decades; rising seas point to an acceleration of this trend. Coastal communities are vulnerable to extreme coastal flooding and socially vulnerable populations continue to be disproportionately affected. Regional and local land development policies, plans, regulations, and funding programs play critical roles in shaping or mitigating local disaster risks and vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding of how and whether pre-disaster development policies align with hazard mitigation goals to minimize risks. This poster describes a study investigating the ways in which pre-disaster development policies shape social and physical vulnerabilities to flooding in Lee County, Florida, prior to Hurricane Ian. Using geospatial and descriptive quantitative analysis, we analyzed the National Structure Inventory (NSI) and U.S. Census demographic and socioeconomic data to assess vulnerabilities at the Census block level. To complement this analysis, our team conducted 300 household surveys and 1,600 physical assessment surveys to capture pre-Ian social and physical vulnerabilities at the building and household level. To draw a connection between pre-Ian vulnerabilities and development policies, we conducted qualitative coding and analyses on forty-one policy, planning, regulation, and funding documents for Lee County from 2000 to 2022. The findings highlight the critical role that development policies play in shaping disaster vulnerability, demonstrating how decisions related to land use, urban planning, infrastructure investment, and resource allocation can either reduce or increase social and physical exposure to hazards.

Climate change and under-regulated urban growth put cities at risk of multiple hazards that compound and cascade to weaken the coping capacities of people, places, and habitats. Planners and policymakers are already shaping multi-hazard exposure by influencing development trajectories, allocating infrastructure, setting design standards, and providing services. However, in the absence of systematic guidance on multi-hazards planning, we risk overlooking opportunities to proactively avoid losses and identify sources of maladaptation. This poster offers a novel methodology to systematically evaluate the state of planning for multi-hazards. The method, Integrated Climate Adaptation Plan Evaluation (I-CAPE), was piloted with municipal partners in the City of Tucson and Pima County during their general plan updates. Using standard content analysis procedures, we analyzed three versions of the City and County general plans—the old versions, the drafts, and the final plan updates. The contribution of this study is two-fold. To limited longitudinal plan evaluations, we add new insights on changes in attention to four relevant hazards: heat, drought, wildfire, and flood. Given the impact emissions control can have on multi-hazards mitigation, I-CAPE also diagnoses synergies and tradeoffs between controlling greenhouse gas emissions and multi-hazards mitigation. Preliminary findings indicate improving recognition of multi-hazard risks over time but few policies that offer synergies across multi-hazards. Findings also reveal the need to consider potential tradeoffs between emissions control, and mitigation of different hazards. These findings pave the way for more empirically informed conversations with city and county stakeholders on how a general plan can effectively address multi-hazards exposure.

Disasters like wildfire have long posed a threat across the southwestern United States. Understanding community-level vulnerability to wildfire is pivotal in efficient disaster management and streamlining resource allocation. Though multiple studies delved deeper into specific case studies of resource allocation in the aftermath of wildfire, there is a lack of knowledge base for predicting the dynamic wildfire risk across counties. This poster describes a study aiming to calculate a comprehensive risk index that encompasses historical data of wildfire impact and frequency, resource allocation post-disaster, and the socio-demographic composition of the counties for the six southwestern U.S. states (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico). Disadvantaged rural communities often need more resources and recovery assistance to manage the disaster than their wealthier counterparts. As disaster response and recovery efforts are managed by the local authorities across the counties, this study aimed to provide a county-level risk index for targeted resource allocation. We have implemented advanced statistical modeling on wildfire incidents data and socio-demographic information from multiple publicly available sources from 2015 to 2022 to indicate the high-risk counties. Our preliminary insights show that though wildfires impact counties like Los Angeles and Napa in comparable ways, the vulnerable communities of the remote mountainous valley in Napa are more susceptible to wildfire and require more recovery assistance. The study also identified socio-economic and demographic factors for the counties' vulnerability to streamline the broader spectrum of policymaking.

Risk communication strategies are crucial in disaster risk management. Understanding at which level communities are susceptible to disinformation and harmful content is extremely relevant for developing effective risk communication tools. This poster describes a study investigating how Brazilian communities perceive risk communication, taking into account the Brazil’s complex diversity, particularly in terms of gender, age, and disabilities. To conduct this analysis, an online nationwide survey was distributed through SurveyMonkey, available in both Portuguese and Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). The survey achieved over 6,300 responses from all Brazilian states. It was composed of 34 questions, organized into five sections: population characteristics, way of living, access to communication devices, risk communication, and media literacy. Preliminary results reveal a high incidence of disaster experience (66%), with floods, and heatwaves being the most commonly experienced socio-environmental disasters (56% and 46%, respectively, among those who answered affirmatively if ever had experienced a disaster). The responses also revealed some misconceptions regarding media literacy. When asked whether all social media users receive the same content, a significant rate of respondents selected “totally agree” (12%) or “partially agree” (31%), suggesting a fragile understanding of how social media platforms and their algorithms work. These findings indicate that it may be difficult to recognize harmful content and disinformation, which can influence communication of socio-environmental disasters.

HowWeSurvive, a new long term, independently funded initiative aimed at reshaping disaster recovery, has for the last year been building a map in Australia of people’s experiences of disaster recovery, gleaned from Royal Commission reports and other publicly available sources. So far we have collected 1,000 stories, with the aim over the next few years of building with partners a global map reflecting the experiences of people caught up in disaster. We are doing this to amplify the most important and most overlooked aspect of disaster recovery—actually listening to people’s experiences. And, while all operational agencies say they listen, this rarely happens in meaningful ways and almost never impacts established and seemingly unmovable operational procedures. We want to play a role in shifting the narrative towards more people-centered approaches to disaster recovery. Our poster will present the map we have built so far and share some of the stories of people’s experiences of disaster recovery. We will also showcase key lessons emerging from an analysis of the stories and what this means for better disaster recovery.

Food insecurity in the aftermath of disasters affects over 44 million Americans, with children, single mothers, and Black and Hispanic communities being disproportionately impacted. After a disaster, households face a variety of challenges that influence their access to food which can lead to severe health and well-being consequences in the short- and long-term. Food access, preparation, and consumption are shaped by a range of factors—such as health considerations that dictate what types of food are suitable, and technical issues regarding food preservation and preparation methods. Organizations from different sectors play a role in helping households recover their ability to access and consume food. However, smaller community-based organizations often lack the data tools and resources needed to effectively support these efforts. These resources include real-time, accurate data to identify vulnerable populations and communication tools that enable collaboration among providers and offer access to spatial and socioeconomic information before a disaster strikes. This poster seeks to outline, through text and image, a process that combines community-engaged research with human-centered design to create a tool tailored to the needs of these organizations, addressing the complex dimensions of post-disaster food insecurity. Furthermore, we reflect on our approach and share lessons learned. This project was part of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator Program, which accelerates research to create impactful solutions for societal challenges through a human-centered design approach.

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing—has significantly enhanced disaster management.  Previous studies have focused on how AI has been applied to specific activities in disaster management, such as sharing information with local, state, and federal agencies or resource allocations in facilitating disaster preparedness and mitigation efforts. However, there is limited research that applies the use of AI from the user’s perspectives in disaster management. This poster describes a systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to assess the role of AI technologies in engaging individuals and communities during disasters.  We employed databases such as IEEE Explore, Web of Science, PubMed, and EBSCOhost for the study. We used the following keywords in the search: disaster management, advanced artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and emergency preparedness. The articles selection process took place in several stages as displayed via a PRISMA flow diagram. Articles were categorized as satisfying the inclusion criteria if they mentioned the above keywords. The selected articles will be analyzed based on their characteristics to explore the inherent benefits in making accuracy and timeliness of predictions from the user’s perspective in disaster management systems.

Air pollution is often considered a confounder rather than a key determinant of chronic disease burden. However, mounting evidence links ambient air pollution (AAP) to diabetes prevalence, particularly in urban areas with high industrial emissions and traffic pollution. As climate change intensifies, wildfires have become an unpredictable source of air pollution, yet their impact on chronic disease remains understudied. With nearly half of U.S. adults affected by diabetes or prediabetes, understanding environmental contributors is critical for disaster preparedness and public health resilience. Despite increasing wildfire activity, research on its specific health effects, including diabetes incidence, remains limited. This poster examines similarities between AAP and wildfire smoke exposure and their impact on metabolic dysfunction, including inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance. It assesses existing literature and advocates for focused research to inform public health and emergency management strategies. An initial search on wildfire-related pollutants and new-onset diabetes returned 351 articles. After excluding duplicates, non-wildfire-related studies, and foreign-language publications, 19 remained. Eight studies linked PM2.5, NO2, and other pollutants to insulin resistance and diabetes-related morbidity. Four studies found that PM2.5 levels during wildfire seasons were linked to worsening cardiovascular and diabetic outcomes. Wildfire-derived particulate matter contained higher inflammatory components than urban pollution, potentially leading to more severe metabolic effects. Individuals with Type 2 diabetes exposed to wildfire smoke had difficulty regulating glucose and faced increased complications. As wildfires intensify, targeted research is urgently needed to determine their contribution to diabetes burden and inform mitigation actions and policies to reduce exposure.

Previous research has proposed various disaster resilience indicators to assess community resilience. However, there are still relatively few studies that have validated these indicators using empirical data. This poster describes a study examining whether pre-disaster factors identified as indicators or community resilience—such as economic development, social capital, and community competence—can facilitate regional recovery after a disaster. The baseline of our study came from a nationwide cohort study of adults aged 65 years or older conducted seven months before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, in which explainable variables regarded as community resilience were measured. In March 2011, the tsunami affected one of our field sites, Iwanuma City, Miyagi. Two and a half years after the disaster, we conducted a follow-up survey to gather information on survivors’ experiences and conditions during and after the disaster (n = 3,594; 82.1% follow-up rate). The primary outcome of our analysis is the self-rated regional recovery of the older residents, measured on a 5-point scale and later transformed into a binary variable: complete/almost complete recovery or halfway/somewhat/no recovery. We employed multilevel logistic regression models to investigate the relationship between survivors’ self-rated regional recovery and community-level resilience indicators. Our preliminary results indicate that a higher level of social participation in the community was associated with improved self-rated regional recovery. Additionally, the higher levels of community activities and social support positively impacted the self-rated regional recovery of the older residents who had experienced housing damage

The Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science at the University of North Texas is home to the nation’s first bachelor’s degree program in Emergency Administration and Planning (EADP) and, as of 2018, also houses a Master of Science program in Emergency Management and Disaster Science (EMDS). Faculty within the department hail from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including hazards geography, disaster sociology, planning, and policy studies. All are committed to conducting cutting edge research at the nexus of hazards, disasters, and emergency management. This poster highlights current research underway by faculty and graduate students in the department.

Several studies center on disaster response, including an examination of factors affecting evacuation and sheltering processes during the 2024 Tsunami in Noto, Japan, and an exploration of evacuation decision-making after Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. In the recovery phase, one study examines the emergence of the #Community Strong slogans after various disasters and crises. Projects focusing on household-level hazard adjustments include one study examining temporal dynamics of flood adjustment behaviors and another investigating the role of place attachment in post-wildfire rebuilding and relocation decisions. Additionally, faculty conduct research in the mitigation and adaption space, leading studies that examine the efficacy of community-based wildfire risk reduction programs in California, analyze ecosystem services available on post-buyout landscapes in the central United States, and examine how intergenerational oral histories contribute to adapting to changing environments in Fiji.

There is a clear gap in the literature on how disasters impact incarcerated populations as well as what, if any plans, are in place to assist these individuals in the event of an emergency. This vulnerable population requires specific resources that would need to be planned for prior to a disaster occurring, as they are reliant on staff for their protection and well-being. This poster describes a study that will explore to what extent, if any, disaster planning measures are implemented within prisons in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Further, coordination and communication with other external agencies and partners may influence the vulnerability of incarcerated populations to disasters. Interviews will be conducted with high-level staff involved in disaster planning and emergency management in prisons (i.e., county, state, federal) for comparative purposes. Interviews will be transcribed and qualitative analysis will be used to identify key themes in the data. The results of this study will identify best practices in emergency management and disaster planning for prison populations as well as deficiencies that exist, in an effort to improve resilience. Benefits of this research are not limited to the prison population, but extend to the larger community and efforts to increase resilience.

The speed at which assistance arrives to households can be crucial for equitable housing recovery after a disaster. Vulnerable populations with limited resources may not be able to wait long for their assistance without suffering severe consequences, further hindering their ability to recover from the disaster. While prior research and official reports have highlighted potential barriers and inequalities in the process of federal disaster recovery programs, there remains little empirical evidence that examines the timing of housing assistance. This poster describes research examining the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Individual Assistance program for housing recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike (2008) in Texas and the timing of disbursements to funded households. Utilizing a unique applicant-level dataset from OpenFEMA supplemented with data from a Freedom of Information Act request, the research modeled how hazard exposure, household characteristics, and neighborhood race and ethnicity impacted housing recovery outcomes. More specifically, the model assessed whether these factors affected the amount of time it took homeowners and renters to receive assistance for home repairs, home replacement, or rent. Results indicate that the uneven speed of funding disbursements may deepen existing vulnerabilities. Hardships may be particularly compounded for lower-income families, larger households, residents of mobile homes and travel trailers, and residents in census tracts with higher proportions of minority households. 

Wildfires pose a significant threat to thousands of communities worldwide. Today, implementing effective evacuations is a key strategy to reduce the impact of these disasters on human lives. As such, understanding the factors that influence evacuation decisions is critical, as these decisions can dramatically affect the outcomes of evacuation management and planning. This study aims to enhance the modeling of householders' evacuation decisions during wildfire disasters by examining the mediation role of risk perception and threat perception. Utilizing Hybrid Choice Models, this research integrates the conceptual framework of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) to predict evacuation decisions. The proposed model was calibrated using responses from 461 householders affected by two major U.S. wildfires—the 2019 Kincade Fire in California and the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado. This study advances our understanding of the protective action decision-making process during wildfires by incorporating risk perception and threat perception as latent variables. These two latent variables are influenced by both physical cues and householders’ characteristics. Results indicate that both risk perception and threat perception play key roles in the prediction of householders’ evacuation decisions. The integration of qualitative analysis from open-ended responses in the questionnaire provides further insights into the factors influencing evacuation decisions. This comprehensive approach improves understanding of the dynamics at play in wildfire evacuation scenarios, offering valuable implications for emergency management, public safety strategies, and policy-makings.

In recent years, diverse data sources—including information from GPS, Meta, and surveys—have been used to analyze wildfire evacuations. However, it remains unclear whether these datasets yield consistent results in characterizing evacuation behavior and, if not, what factors contribute to the discrepancies. This poster examines and compares GPS, Meta, and survey data from the 2021 Marshall Fire. The findings reveal significant variations in evacuation compliance rates and departure time curves across the three datasets. We discuss the potential causes of these differences and their implications for future wildfire evacuation analysis.

Heightened wildfire activity and concurring wildfires has placed enormous stress on California’s mutual aid system. Communities in fire prone areas have an imperative to prepare their own defenses. In the wake of the Woolsey Fire, the Malibu Community Brigade was formed in response to the finding that many community members—when able—preferred to remain and defend their own properties. The brigade underwent fire mitigation and response training and was recognized by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The devastating Palisades fire in January 2025 provided an opportunity to examine the brigade’s impact. This poster will address the following: First, what was the impact of the community brigade’s adaptations and preparedness on the outcomes of the Palisades Fire? Second, which fire response and mitigation activities are the community brigade best equipped to engage in? These questions are addressed through qualitative and geospatial analysis of the brigade’s response data, as well as the fire footprints. Drawing upon interviews, observations, and real-time data of the brigade’s activities during the fire response, we will provide insights into the impact of the community brigade on the Palisades fire response and outcomes in the Malibu community. The implications of this research are two-fold: First, this study will enhance our understanding of communities that experience multiple disasters, which will be a common future condition across geographies. Second, it will provide insights into the type of infrastructure and resources needed to prepare for community-led disaster response as emergency services are continuously stretched thin by concurrent disasters.

A higher cost of living combined with more frequent and intense weather events is a compounding socio-economic problem that needs to be addressed through a social justice lens. This poster describes research contending that partnering with a community during early-stage research design is essential for defining resilience in ways that are both actionable and equitable. However, conducting research at the neighborhood scale reveals significant methodological and institutional barriers, from navigating institutional review board processes to refining participatory methods that accommodate diverse perspectives. In collaboration with the Indianhead-Lehigh neighborhood (affectionally called Nene Land) in Tallahassee, FL, this work explores how neighborhood-scale resilience is experienced and contested in a community with diverse ethnic backgrounds, income levels, and climate risk exposure. Preliminary data collection—which combined geospatial analysis and insights from community meetings—highlights the disconnect between policy-driven resilience definitions and locally relevant adaptation strategies. At the same time, this early-stage research has faced challenges in structuring participatory methods, addressing institutional constraints, and adapting methodologies in response to community input. This poster reflects on these early-stage challenges and their implications for the future of disaster research. By addressing practical barriers to researcher–community collaboration, this study contributes to broader discussions on integrating equity into climate resilience research.

This poster reports the results of an investigation conducted to systematically understand local governments’ disaster response and mutual aid activities during the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Japan. A notable feature of the disaster response during this earthquake was the extensive nationwide support provided by municipalities to the affected local governments. This practice will continue in the next major disaster. Therefore, identifying the challenges and benefits of large-scale support and aid activities will serve as preparation for the next disaster. To understand the overall picture, a quantitative survey was conducted, targeting all local governments nationwide (i.e., prefectures, designated cities, and municipalities) and dispatched local government officials. The survey asked respondents to describe the support activities (e.g., implementation period, number of dispatched staff, assigned tasks, etc.). Subsequently, we integrated a qualitative component into the study and conducted interviews with local government officials and others dispatched to municipalities.

Many people do not realize that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) provides funds to help home and business owners mitigate hazard risks to their property and reduce the risk of future damage. To encourage disaster survivors in Florida impacted by hurricanes Milton and Helene to take advantage of these funds and rebuild their structures to be more resistant to damage from future storms, SBA piloted a series of 21 in-person Mitigation Information Sessions in Florida over two weeks in January 2025. SBA loan application data was layered onto a Geographic Information System map to provide a data-informed framework to prioritize locations for information sessions, focusing on those communities most impacted by Hurricane Milton and areas with damage from multiple storms. The sessions were designed to provide current and future SBA borrowers with actionable information and guidance on accessing the SBA disaster loan mitigation option. This option allows property owners to add funds to their SBA physical disaster loans—up to 20% of the verified loss—to mitigate their property from any future peril. The sessions provided attendees with the opportunity to get one-on-one guidance tailored to their specific loan circumstances and their structural situation. Thanks to a collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, attendees were also able to get information on structural strategies to build back stronger. The success of the deployment will be measured by the number of attendees who pursue the SBA mitigation option and whose mitigated structures are able to withstand future disasters.

As populations in many countries experience demographic shifts towards aging, it is important to recognize the implications of such transitions on disaster planning, such as the increased number of adults over the age of 65 living alone. The United States is not immune to such trends and consequently, findings from other countries facing even more dramatic transitions may hold useful information to inform policymakers in advance. This poster describes research analyzing data from a variety of longitudinal surveys examining loneliness and social isolation among older adults, including the Health and Retirement Study covering the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Japan,. In addition, a literature review was conducted to examine both how social isolation and loneliness are viewed in the countries being examined in the longitudinal quantitative analysis as well as how any national level policies have acknowledged or addressed these issues with an eye on whether these social phenomena have been considered in existing disaster documentation. An overly generalizing view that decreased social network size is negative for older adults across the board is not supported by the current literature, which suggests some nuance in day-to-day situations based on socioemotional selectivity theory. However, disasters have the capability of disrupting such networks and consequently older adults are more likely to suffer longer lasting or permanent negative consequences due to difficulties in reengaging or replacing such connections.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is the largest wildfire management agency in the country. Despite this, it does not have sole responsibility and authority to comprehensively address wildfire risk. To successfully address wildfire risk, the USFS must work with multiple organizations to improve coordination and engage in collaborative learning to improve social and ecological outcomes. Further, many of the greatest wildfire threats that we currently face are deeply rooted in policy, the economy, demographic shifts, and local community characteristics. The establishment of the Social Science Research Group (SSRG) for wildfire offers a unique opportunity to examine the complex interactions required to address wildfire risk. As a long-term effort, the SSRG will bring together seasoned practitioners from USFS and senior-level social scientists to gain insights about wildfire interagency organizational learning and how practitioners and researchers can work together to reflect on wildfire mitigation and suppression actions in the field, develop lessons learned, and implement informed policies and practices ahead of the next wildfire.

Drones, genetic testing, artificially intelligent information assistants, mobile phones, video chats, bionic limbs: At one time, these were things of science fiction. Today, they are part of modern society. As the world emerges from a global pandemic that caused millions of confirmed deaths, froze international travel and the supply chain, and led to (or revealed) political divides on the very nature of the threat, it is clear that planning for the disasters we know is insufficient. While we continue to try to solve the problems of today, the disasters of the future lurk in the distance. As devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic was, it is not difficult to imagine how it might have been worse. Imagining those future disasters, and suggesting innovative paths forward, is paramount for disaster science. In May 2024, the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center celebrated its 60th Anniversary with a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on Disaster Research: Innovating for an Imagined Disaster Future. This event hosted collaborative discussions as well as presenters from a broad range of practice and disciplinary areas— including a fireside chat with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Chief Medical Advisor to the President, and Valerie Biden Owens, Biden Institute Chair. The workshop sought to identify and catalyze the expansion of the field’s development of new and pressing research directions. Themes from the workshop can be found at https://www.drc.udel.edu/60thworkshop/.

Climate change is affecting the frequency, intensity, and location of precipitation events which in turn are placing increased stress on energy, water, and transport infrastructure systems. This poster examines how infrastructure decision-makers in Detroit, MI, and Fort Cavazos, TX, are increasing the resilience of interconnected civil and military infrastructure to extreme flood events in order to safeguard human health and safety, minimize impacts to property, and maintain research and mission capacity. The focus is on two Department of Defense installations and the surrounding civil infrastructure organizations with whom these installations cooperate. The installation in Detroit, MI, is susceptible to extreme rain events that overwhelm existing infrastructure while the installation in Fort Cavazos, TX, is located in Flash Flood Alley. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic research with civil and military decision-makers (n=47), the poster describes how the social and ecological context shapes flood risk; the key trade-offs, facilitators, and barriers facing decision-makers as they seek to address extreme flooding; and the social and cultural factors that affect both how decisions are made to increase flood resilience and the nature of those decisions. Parallel ongoing research by other members of the project’s multidisciplinary team (flood and weather modeling, uncertainty quantification, risk perception) will be presented alongside the study results. The poster provides insight into how social and cultural factors of institutions affect decision-making for natural hazard management within and across jurisdictional boundaries.

Many residents and visitors in Clackamas County, Oregon, do not know that the area’s majestic Mount Hood is an active volcano. That is a problem for local emergency managers who are trying to promote community planning for a low-probability, high-consequence volcano crisis. Local emergency managers rely on the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory for the most effective means to assess the hazards and analyze the risk for the sake of emergency planning and community engagement. Mount Hood has a moderate amount of population and development exposure and even a minimal level of unrest would be disastrous for Clackamas County. During the past 2,000 years, the growth and collapse of Mount Hood’s earlier lava domes at the site of Crater Rock have produced hundreds of pyroclastic flows down the southwest flank of the mountain. This broad, smooth side of the mountain is the home of the county’s ski resorts, a historical lodge, a nearby state highway, and residential areas scattered along the river drainages. One approach to illuminate Mount Hood’s recent history of lava dome-building eruptions is to compare the 2004-2008 low-impact eruptive episode of nearby Mount Saint Helens to a similar scenario on Mount Hood. While this recent unrest on Mount Saint Helens was benign because there was no near-field human development, a similar scale of 36 months of extrusion of semi-solid lava from Mount Hood’s Crater Rock area would be catastrophic. Emergency managers can utilize deterministic scenarios such as this for community planning.

Inland flood risk management (FRM) strategies have focused on reducing inundation potential by disconnecting channels and floodplains, such as with levees and dams. Consequently, other environmental threats have been exacerbated: wildfire, soil erosion, habitat loss, interruption of biogeochemical flows, and others. Additionally, traditional FRM infrastructure has arguably shifted flood risk across space and time, increasing exposure in the event of failure and worsening upstream and downstream hazards. Flood risk managers of the 21st century must engage with a broader understanding of infrastructure as one component of complex social, ecological, and technological systems in order to balance these threats. This poster presents ongoing research that connects FRM to the planetary boundaries framework and proposes a strategy of hydrologic “easing” to promote more resilient systems. Two pathways—traditional, hardened FRM infrastructure and nature-based approaches to FRM—are explored in terms of flood risk reduction, exacerbation of other environmental risks, and long-term resilience or ability to persist across future conditions. The loss of ecological function associated with traditional FRM contributes to global exceedance of safe thresholds of planetary boundaries; therefore, prudent risk management must consider a broader range of hazards than just inundation.

Disasters exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as renters. While disaster recovery research has explored various challenges, renters’ post-disaster issues and rental housing affordability need more investigation. This poster describes our systematic literature review and synthesis of journal articles from 2000 to 2024 that we conducted to examine the impacts of disasters on renter recovery trajectories, rental affordability, and policy responses. Initial findings indicate that recovery resources and policies mostly prioritize homeowners, leaving renters with limited assistance and resources. For instance, federal assistance programs—as one of the main resources for disaster recovery—often allocate more budget to homeowners, leaving low-income renters with limited access to recovery funds. This circumstance deepens housing insecurity in the aftermath of disasters. As a result, renters face displacement, rising rents, and exclusion from assistance programs due to restrictive eligibility criteria. Furthermore, post-disaster policy shifts—such as rent control removal and zoning changes—contribute to the extended affordable rental housing loss. Despite apparent disparities, significant key gaps remain and include fluctuation in rental affordability after disaster, renters’ long-term displacement, landlord decision-making processes, and the intersection of rental policies with recovery outcomes. Addressing these issues requires targeted policy interventions, including expanded rental assistance, rent stabilization measures, and stronger affordable housing programs.

Public health outcomes have become a central focus in urban planning and landscape architecture. Despite growing awareness of how urban design impacts well-being, the direct relationships between land use patterns and public health outcomes remain underexplored. This poster describes research examining the association between land use and public health outcomes in several super neighborhoods within greater Houston, Texas. Texas has seen rapid urbanization and significant land use changes. The proximity of these neighborhoods to industrial sites, such as railyards and landfills with known soil pollution, makes them compelling case studies for exploring environmental impacts on health. The history of environmental contamination in neighborhoods with predominantly lower-income populations provides critical context for understanding health disparities. This research integrates environmental data, including soil sampling and pollution levels, with public health data documenting chronic conditions like cancer and respiratory illness. It compares the role of environmental inequities, exploring how land use patterns and proximity to industrial sites have shaped health outcomes in these neighborhoods compared to similar areas in Houston. Through statistical analysis, the research develops a quantitative model linking land use conditions with public health outcomes, identifying specific patterns associated with chronic conditions. The findings contribute to a pilot simulation model guiding cleanup strategies and land use policies. This model serves as a tool for professionals and academics, offering evidence-based insights to inform policy development, zoning regulations, and community interventions, advancing public welfare through health-focused urban planning.

This collaborative project combines county-level housing data with detailed rain, wind, and flood data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and social vulnerability data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to formulate a regression model for predicting post-hurricane housing damage. Using damage data collected by the Red Cross and applying a systematic approach to model selection, the project team was able to generate an optimal predictive model for the historical context of Hurricane Michael. This poster discusses the performance of the model and the preliminary results of extending it to other hurricane events in order to support more effective future decision making.