Coastal Resilience Program Director Dr. Debalina Sengupta and her co-investigators received nearly $500K to improve resilience for coastal communities.
College Station, Texas — Texas Sea Grant, in collaboration with academic, community and policy groups across Texas, received $499,492 for the project “Enhancing resilience of energy and water supply infrastructure along the Texas Coast against catastrophic coastal flooding through integration of climate-informed adaptation strategies.”
Texas Sea Grant’s project is one of ten selected by National Sea Grant and U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP) to improve resilience with coastal communities. Overall, Sea Grant and USCRP invested $3.9 million in funding to translate research into application.
Texas’ project lead, Texas Sea Grant’s Coastal Resilience Director Dr. Debalina Sengupta, works with co-leads Dr. Yu Zhang, associate professor of Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, and Dr. Qin Qian, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Center for Resiliency at Lamar University and other researchers from the two universities.
“We will collaborate to enhance the climate-informed risk assessment framework and evaluate the potential disruptions to energy production caused by catastrophic flooding,” said Qian.
Their project aims to improve the resilience of energy and supporting water infrastructure along the upper Texas coast to extreme floods in present and future climate conditions.
“Many communities along the upper Texas coast have come to the realization that the flooding hazards they’re exposed to today and in the future might be quite different from what the region experienced in the past,” said Zhang. “Much needs to be done to translate outcomes from climate research into actions to reduce the impacts of flooding on critical infrastructures.”
The team will use the funds to appraise future flood hazards, evaluate adaptation measures and integrate the results in regional community development management plans.
“Chambers, Jefferson and Orange counties are heavily industrialized and close to energy infrastructure,” said Sengupta. “Flooding can severely impact not only the neighboring communities, but also the national energy systems. Therefore, it is critical that we have a comprehensive understanding of the link between energy infrastructure and water.”
Media Contact:
Sara Carney, Communications Manager, Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications, 713-435-9585, scarney@tamu.edu
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Texas Sea Grant is a unique partnership that unites the resources of the federal government, the State of Texas and universities across the state to create knowledge, tools, products and services that benefit the economy, the environment and the citizens of Texas. It is administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is one of 34 university-based Sea Grant Programs around the country. Texas Sea Grant is a non-academic research center at Texas A&M University. The program’s mission is to improve the understanding, wise use and stewardship of Texas coastal and marine resources.