Research
I am an interdisciplinary social scientist, using methods commonly used in public administration, policy, and economic disciplines. My primary areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions (NBS); hazard mitigation; disaster resilience; and natural resource management, policy, and economics. My current work investigates the different types of NBS to reduce disaster impacts, most specifically flooding, and improve the livelihoods of rural and traditionally marginalized communities.
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My overarching research goal is to assess how government policies could help increase natural land cover, and how to provide incentives to landowners, as well as for communities to participate. Policies aimed toward climate change adaptation and resilience are essential to alleviate current and future damages on human and ecological livelihoods. I seek to discover the best practices and processes for creating locally driven solutions, testing practices and processes through demonstrations and community engagement. Overall, understanding local natural resource management and governance and adapting them to our future management practices may assist in the reduction of global climate change and its impacts on flooding.
​Below is a list of some current and past projects.
FloodWise
Increased global temperatures and extensive climate changes have indicated extreme and atypical weather events across the globe. With this increase in unnatural climate change patterns, heat waves and unforeseen storms, such as precipitation, floods, and droughts, are likely to become more recurrent and severe. Heavy precipitation and river flooding are top indicators of global climate change, adversely causing increased soil erosion, flood risk, and pollution from runoff.
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Natural-based solutions, such as wetlands and forests, can serve as critical habitat for wildlife, function as a sink for harmful greenhouse gas emissions, provide a natural filtration system for toxic pollutants from runoff, and act as a buffer for flooding. Such natural buffers can be used for adaptation by reducing economic losses from floods and other extreme weather events. Between 2003 and 2013, flooding caused $1.5 trillion in damage worldwide. As climate change continues to intensify, investment and solutions for green infrastructure are key for preventing global economic losses.
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We have termed our line of research “FloodWise” to describe the water quality, flood mitigation, farm benefits, and community governance connections. This component focuses primarily on identifying selected water quantity storage practices that could reduce flooding on farms and downstream communities, and then estimating the costs of those practices through literature reviews, data collection from secondary or primary sources, and use of economic-engineering approaches for cost estimation. We cooperate with government and nongovernment organizations, agricultural producers, and community stakeholders to design and implement the FloodWise program. The long-term is to extend the FloodWise program or a similar model to other parts of the US East with similar flat topography and rural landscapes as Eastern North Carolina. The idea is also to inform localities of current or future conservation programs and hazard mitigation and climate change adaptation plans.
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Community-Based Forest Management
Forests in the United States offer a mix of market goods, services, and amenities that support livelihoods, enhance environmental quality, and foster social benefits. However, many rural communities, some of which have a large area of forest, suffer from low income levels and lack of economic opportunities. For this research, we traveled to four different case study sites in South Carolina, Puerto Rico, and New Hampshire to interview community forest volunteers and learn more about the community forest’s ecosystem services, land governance, management objectives, and forest uses and benefits. We are also working with researchers and faculty members at Oregon State University, comparing CBFM efforts in the US East with the US West. ​
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Hofmann Open Water Laboratory (HOWL)
HOWL is a citizen science project that was created by a group of local researchers, students, conservation groups, and community members who are interested in Hofmann Forest's importance in the NC coastal community, as well as the impacts of land-use change on water quality of the White Oak, New, and Trent Rivers in Eastern North Carolina. Our team set out to analyze the quality of the Hofmann Forest’s watershed in order to understand the Hofmann’s place in the coastal ecosystem as a whole and how its quality would affect the surrounding human and ecological community. However, we realized quickly that we would need help collecting hundreds of stream water samples and observations, and so we partnered with the Izaak Walton League to help us contact and get local community members involved in such an overwhelming task. Local volunteers not only help collect samples for this large-scale citizen science project, but will also help us try out some new equipment for water sampling and testing.
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