Compared to other hazards such as floods and earthquakes, landslides are small, making them more challenging to observe. As a result, there has been no global network for determining when they might occur. Despite their size, landslides are a pervasive hazard – killing thousands of...
The NASA Disasters Program sponsors application science to support disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery through a series of grants and partnerships funded by the NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) program. The current portfolio of projects from the 2019 ROSES A.37 solicitation covers a broad swath of hazard and disaster research, from tsunami and landslide forecasting to volcanic ash and wildfire smoke plume tracking. It represents the cutting edge of applied disasters research. The program’s research efforts aim to assemble scientifically-defensible studies on disaster risk management, demonstrate the applications of NASA Earth-observing data for studying disasters, and mature the technologies and techniques developed from these projects to operational use.
Projects
Principal Investigator
Dalia Kirschbaum
Principal Investigator
Sarah Payne
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Georgia Disasters II (2023 Spring)
Team: Shakirah Rogers (Project Lead), Nathan Tesfayi, Matthew Murray, Clarence Jackson
Summary: Heirs property owners are especially vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters. This group of people have inherited property left with no clear title and thus have unclear group...
Principal Investigator
Sarah Payne
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Georgia Disasters (Fall 2022)
Team: Isabella Chittumuri (Project Lead), Nancee Uniyal, Nathan Tesfayi, Shakirah Rogers
Summary: In September 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in southern Georgia, causing severe flooding and widespread destruction. Disaster recovery programs were inaccessible for heirs' property owners due to title difficulties...
Principal Investigator
Eric Fielding
The moments immediately following a disaster are crucial to a swift recovery, yet it can be difficult for first responders to find reliable disaster information with such a tight timeframe. Sang-Ho Yun’s research project aims to provide rapid mapping of disaster damage using synthetic aperture...
Principal Investigator
Leah Mayo
Team Members: Narcisa G. Pricope (University of North Carolina Wilmington and Mississippi State University), Leah Mayo (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Joanne Halls (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Crystal Dixon (Wake Forest University), Elijah Dalton (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
Executive Summary: Coastal environments are...
Principal Investigator
Kristopher Bedka
Hail is the costliest severe weather hazard for the insurance industry, damaging assets such as homes, businesses, agriculture, and infrastructure. Since most insurance companies do not reserve enough capital to cover catastrophes, they require reinsurance – insurance for insurance companies. The reinsurance industry uses...
Principal Investigator
Franz Meyer
Weather-related hazards, such as flash flooding and hurricane surges, are natural phenomena that can have devastating impacts on communities worldwide. As a result, disaster responders must react as quickly as possible to mitigate the impact on people and their homes. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) –...
Principal Investigator
Diego Melgar
Tsunamis are one of the most powerful and destructive natural forces. Triggered by earthquakes, tsunami waves typically reach shores anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes after a quake occurs. Current tsunami early warning systems in the Cascadia subduction zone struggle to respond within the first...
Principal Investigator
Olivia Landry
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Youngstown & Warren Disasters (Fall 2022)
Team: Lauren Mahoney (Project Lead), David Henriques, Nada Haddad, Thomas Ferrell
Summary: Both pluvial and fluvial flooding events pose direct challenges to urban infrastructure and communities across the United States. Heavy rainfall events oversaturate the ground, overflow waterbodies, and...
Principal Investigator
Charles Huyck
Cities are complex systems with interconnected “lifeline networks” enabled by critical infrastructure, which can be severely damaged or destroyed in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Following Hurricanes Maria and Katrina and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, for example, damage to critical systems resulted in...