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Texas A&M University researchers are collaborating on an NSF initiative aimed at identifying links between the U.S. food distribution system and the nation’s energy, water and transportation networks that are most likely to be disrupted in a natural disaster.

Texas legislators are investigating the benefits of RAPIDO, a pilot program developed with recommendations from Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, that dramatically reduces the time it takes to rebuild homes destroyed by natural disasters.

Urban planners can assess whether a community’s hazard plans target its most vulnerable areas with a scorecard developed in part by planning researchers at Texas A&M.

A research team from Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center is working to identify best practices in pre- and post-disaster planning in communities recovering from a variety of natural and man-made disasters.

An elite group of urban planning researchers from Texas A&M University have been selected to play an integral role with scientists from 11 universities in a nationwide initiative aimed at helping communities prepare for and recover from natural disasters.

To contend with the rapidly escalating threat of coastal flooding, government agencies need to adopt a new, fundamentally different strategy focused on flood prevention rather than recovery, according to a recent National Research Council report.

Toxic waste pits along the San Jacinto River in far east Harris County containing dioxin and other hazardous substances are a “loaded gun” threatening human health and the environment, said Sam Brody, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University.

A significant era of the campus’ architectural heritage was discussed by preservation experts in “A Collection of Extraordinary Talent & Artistry: The Depression-Era Buildings of Texas A&M,” an April 30 lecture at the College of Architecture's Preston Geren Auditorium.

Bill McKibben, who the Boston Globe called one of the United States’ most important environmentalists, visited Texas A&M to talk about the threat of global warming and the international movement to end humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels.

To mark 25 years of disaster-related research at Texas A&M University, many of the nation’s top hazard researchers are gathering on campus April 4-5 to present their latest work as part of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center’s “Planning for Disaster Resilience Symposium.”

Last summer, Texas A&M hazard mitigation researchers partnered with their Dutch counterparts at Delft University in The Netherlands to developed a joint research agenda to combat a common enemy — flooding.

A federal study aimed at enhancing plant safety throughout the U.S. chemical manufacturing system benefitted from the work of Michael Lindell, a professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University who contributed sections on risk and decision analyses and emergency management.

Relief efforts after a natural disaster should include local businesses as well as households, because “one can’t return without the other,” said researchers at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center investigating Galveston’s recovery after 2008’s Hurricane Ike.

Due to the destruction of natural resources and poor community planning efforts, Texas remains extraordinarily vulnerable to hurricane damage, said two Texas A&M urban planning professors in an Aug. 28 Bryan-College Station Eagle report as Hurricane Isaac barreled through the Gulf of Mexico.

Ranked as one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S., groundwater-dependent Montgomery County, Texas is confronted with a looming water crisis threatening future growth, according to a study by urban planners at Texas A&M University.