Oronde Drakes

Oronde Drakes is a physical scientist in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Resources Mission Area. Drakes's research interrogates the intersections among natural hazards and society, focusing on multiple hazard risks and their implications for compounding and cascading hazard exposure, impacts, and recovery. His current work assesses risk factors for drought and water insecurity. He co-chairs the USGS Human Dimensions Community of Practice. Drakes has previously worked on flood vulnerability mapping, impacts of sea level rise on the coastal defense structures, developed risk assessment databases, and regional-scale multiple hazard vulnerability profiles.

A Bill Anderson Fund alumnus, he is a recipient of the Jeanne X. Kasperson Prize for outstanding student research in hazards geography and the Gilbert F. White Dissertation Award from the Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.