As sea levels continue to rise and more severe storms, like Hurricanes Maria and Michael, threaten coastline communities, local leaders need to assess the hazards and vulnerabilities of their locale. Risk assessment and risk mitigation practices can be beneficial in creating adaptation plans and making mitigation decisions for coastal communities. 

Roshanak Nateghi, PhD, assistant professor of industrial engineering and environmental & ecological engineering, gave a presentation on "Multi-Dimensional Infrastructure Resilience Modeling: A Data-driven Approach".

Her graduate students gave three oral presentations:

• Ben Rachunok (IE) - "A Comparison Of Spatial And Random Failures When Simulating Network Outages"
• Renee Obringer (ESE & EEE) - "What Does the Future Hold? A Multivariate Analysis of the Residential Water-Energy Demand Nexus under Climate Change"
• Deb Maia Silva (EEE) and Rohini Kumar - "Electricity Demand Analytics Under Climate Variability and Change"

The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those interested in risk analysis. SRA was established in 1980 and has published Risk Analysis: An International Journal, the leading scholarly journal in the field, continuously since 1981. 

David R. Johnson, PhD, assistant professor of industrial engineering and political science, and his team of researchers have identified strategies for implementing the plan options that will perform well over a wide range of future conditions and improve upon the expected risk reduction of similar projects. The study, "Robust funding allocations for nonstructural flood risk mitigation in Louisiana's coastal zone," has the potential to improve the cost effectiveness of investments in flood protection, increasing the resilience of coastal communities against hurricanes.

Johnson presented two talks, titled "Robust Funding Allocations for Nonstructural Flood Risk Mitigation in Louisiana’s Coastal Zone" and "Benefit-cost Analysis of Flood Risk Reduction Measures in Louisiana’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan". 

Three of his graduate students also gave oral presentations:

• Tugce Sahan (IE) - "Homeowner-Level Decision Support System for Mitigating Coastal Flood Risk In Louisiana"
• Matthew Shisler(IE) - "Improving Storm Surge Hazard Characterization Using “Pseudo-surge” to Augment Hydrodynamic Simulation Outputs"
• Nagisa Ishinabe (Political Science) - "Environmental Justice Implications of Flood Risk Management  Policies in Louisiana"