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Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Policymakers, government employees and engineers can learn to make communities more resilient to the negative impact of flooding by reading "Rising Waters: The Causes and Consequences of Flooding in the United States," a new book co-authored by Sam Brody, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, available soon from Cambridge University Press.
Brody and his co-authors, Wes Highfield, assistant research scientist at Texas A&M University at Galveston's Department of Marine Science, and Jung Eun Kang, research fellow at the Korea Environment Institute's Adaptation Center for Climate Change, spent five years researching the topic with a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Focusing on Texas and Florida, the authors investigate factors other than rainfall that determine the degree of flooding, and consider the key role of nonstructural techniques and strategies in flood mitigation. The book presents an empirical and multiscale assessment that underlines the critical importance of local planning and development decisions.
Written for researchers and advanced students and in hazard mitigation, hydrology, geography, environmental planning and public policy, the book shows how local communities can reduce human casualties and property damage associated with flooding.
Brody also authored "Ecosystem Planning in Florida," a 2008 book that suggests understanding how local jurisdictions manage natural systems can lead to more sustainable levels of environmental planning in the future.
"Rising Waters" and "Ecosystem Planning in Florida" are both available at amazon.com.
Brody, who has a joint appointment to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at the Texas A&M University College of Architecture and the Department of Marine Sciences at Texas A&M-Galveston, is holder of the George P. Mitchell ’40 Chair in Sustainable Coasts and director of the Environmental Planning and Sustainability Research Unit and the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores.
Highfield, associate director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores, conducts research on the effects of wetland alteration on flooding and teaches courses in geographic information systems and biostatistics.
Kang was formerly a postdoctoral research associate in the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University where she conducted research on coastal flooding and natural hazard mitigation in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Posted: Jan. 13, 2011 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
Sam Brody
