A Texas A&M Galveston professor is using her fellowship on a holistic approach to solve the region's flooding problems.
Dr. Ashley Ross, assistant professor in the Marine Sciences Department of TAMU at Galveston, is leading a group of researchers who will explore the influence of public and private relationships in tackling natural disasters.
“The idea is that every community is different, we all have different characteristics and we also have different sets of values and cultural norms that may influence how we deal with flooding and how we respond to it,” she says.
Solving the region's flood problems goes much deeper than digging bayous or urban planning.
“What Houston-Galveston area residents see as risk, what they value in terms of their communities, how they're connected to one another, and how much knowledge we have about risk collectively so we can make better informed decisions together,” says Ross.
“I'm also interested in understanding what millennials think about flooding and hazards, and risk in general,” she says. “And how they can be part of a community strategy to improve resilience to flooding.”
The research is made possible by a two-year, $76,000 grant.