by admin | Dec 17, 2019 | Activism, Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economic development, Emergency Management, Floodplain management, Floodplain management, Government, Housing, Natural Hazards, Public health, Public policy, Resilience, Urban Planning, Water
The most important feature of this post is simply the link. Clicking here will lead you to a newly published podcast about the recovery struggles of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in the fall of 2017. The recording–an interview between me and Professor...
by admin | Dec 2, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economics, Environment, Floodplain management, Natural Hazards, Parks, Politics, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Water, Wildfire
Warning to readers: This is not my usual single-focus essay. It is a collage of news from two coastal states with an assortment of serious natural hazards challenges—Florida and California. In recent years, their politics has tended to diverge widely, but perhaps we...
by admin | Nov 12, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Floodplain management, Geography, Housing, Natural Hazards, Recreation, Resilience, Transportation, Uncategorized, Urban Planning, Water
Wilmington, a charming city of just over 100,000 on the far southern edge of the North Carolina coast, has taken some hits from coastal storms in recent years, most notably Hurricane Florence in 2018. Hurricane Dorian this year posed a minor threat but mostly left a...
by admin | Apr 9, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate, Drought, Environment, Floodplain management, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Science, Water
I grew up near the shores of Lake Erie, in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year stint in Iowa and Nebraska, I ended up in Chicago, where I have lived since 1985. The Great Lakes have been part of my ecological and geographic consciousness for essentially 90 percent...
by admin | Jan 28, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Urban Planning
Eroded hillsides have helped push New Zealand to adopt its own approach to risk reduction. Late in 2017, I received an inquiry from Oxford University Press. Professor Ann-Margaret Esnard at the Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University had recommended me for...
by admin | Nov 29, 2018 | Books, Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Emergency Management, Geography, Natural Hazards, Public health, Public safety, Weather, Wildfire
Summarizing the major points from a densely factual book like Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future, by Edward Struzik (Island Press, 2018), is about as challenging as understanding precisely what is happening in the midst of a rapidly moving massive...