June 2019. Texas A&M University (TAMU) Superfund Research Center is pleased to announce selection of four new pilot projects (May 2019-April 2020). Supported by the generous funding from Texas A&M University Office of Research, each of these projects will expand on the goals of the Texas A&M University Superfund Research Center, that is, to develop comprehensive tools and models for addressing exposure to mixtures during environmental emergency-related contamination events.
Mikyoung Jun and James Kaihatu, Project 1 Co-Investigators, have partnered with Shankar Chellam, Professor, TAMU Civil Engineering, to expand their capabilities in using numerical models and statistical interpolation techniques to ascertain possible pathways of contaminated runoff, and the transport from likely sources in the Houston area, from Hurricane Harvey.
Galen Newman Co-Investigator of the Community Engagement Core, and Dongying Li, Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, will establish preliminary evidence regarding the relations between environmental exposure and psychological health in communities affected by Hurricane Harvey. These results will help identify the roles of exposure to green space in promoting emotional resilience in hurricane-impact community environmental modifications.
Galen Newman, will also be working with OneConcern, a California-based startup developing solutions for disaster resilience, on integrating urban analytics into engagement and performance evaluation for resilient growth. This pilot project will test the capabilities of what can be measured for existing conditions and the potential to measure the impacts of one proposed master plan using two flood prone neighborhoods.
Weihsueh Chiu, Principle Investigator in Decision Science Core, and trainee Sharmila Bhandari will work with Kevin Fries of OneConcern to evaluate the potential risk from chemical contamination due to flood waters by combining OneConcern’s flood modeling simulations with TAMU SRP GIS data for the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria area.
This interdisciplinary team of scientists from biomedical, geosciences, urban planning, data science and engineering disciplines come together to design comprehensive solutions for complex exposure- and hazard-related challenges in environmental disaster events.