Hurricane Erin, a massive Category 2 storm with 105 mph winds, is threatening the U.S. East Coast with flooding and dangerous surf possibly stretching from Florida to Maine despite remaining offshore.
Rice University experts can speak on flooding and related topics.
Co-director, Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center
Blackburn can speak to the legal, scientific and policy implications of flood events, including the need for nature-based solutions, updated flood maps, and politically challenging but necessary land-use reforms.
Director, SSPEED Center
Bedient can discuss flooding issues that arise from tropical depressions, hurricanes and severe storms. Bedient is the designer of the Rice/TMC Flood Alert System (FAS5) and Houston's Flood Information and Response System.
Associate professor, Earth, environmental and planetary sciences
Dee leads a climate science lab focused on forecasting the impact of climate extremes on human and environmental systems.
Assistant professor, civil and environmental engineering
Gori's expertise includes rural flood risk and climate impacts on extreme weather. She can also speak to multi-hazard risk assessment.
Gori co-lead's an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project with Rice researchers and partners across Texas to reform flood management in rural communities by integrating hydrological models, artificial intelligence and direct community input. Their work emphasizes equity and long-term resilience, particularly in underserved regions.
Assistant professor, civil and environmental engineering
As the lead of the "AI for Climate Risk and Resilience" research cluster at Rice's Ken Kennedy Institute, Doss-Gollin is collaboratively developing next-generation tools for flood assessment, adaptation and response.
His research develops methods for identifying risk-management strategies that robustly reduce risks under evolving conditions and for understanding and quantifying complex hydroclimate risks, including how the spatial and temporal structure of extreme rainfall affects urban infrastructure systems.
Doss-Gollin co-lead's an NSF-funded project with Rice researchers and partners across Texas to reform flood management in rural communities by integrating hydrological models, AI and direct community input. Their work emphasizes equity and long-term resilience, particularly in underserved regions.
