Beaumont

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PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Jan. 9, 2022) – The Gulf Coast contains an extensive and diverse range of natural features and human settlements with a disproportionate number of vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, this region, which includes the Beaumont-Port Arthur areas, faces regular “acute-on-chronic” hazards in which short-notice technological and natural stressors (e.g., coastal storms, oil spills) occur alongside long-term, chronic environmental, industrial and social stressors (e.g., subsidence, population growth, toxic pollution).

Noel Estwick, Ph.D.

Noel Estwick, Ph.D.

This region can serve as a bellwether of change, providing either successful or failed adaptation of these compounded and coupled crises.

Enter a new $750,000 grant earned by Noel Estwick, Ph.D., assistant professor of agriculture at Prairie View A&M University, from the Department of Energy. The grant will support his Urban Integrated Field Lab in Southeast Texas, to be labeled as SETx-IFL.

Dr. Estwick and his team are excited about the opportunity for change.

“I was ecstatic when I received news that the grant was funded,” said Estwick. “The Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area of the USA is extremely diverse and has numerous vulnerable communities. I strongly believe that SETx-IFL is unique and will make critical contributions in the study region to our understanding of the impacts of flooding and air pollution; generate relevant solutions to foster community resilience; and contribute to critical planning and decision-making.”

The team is comprised of researchers from four Texas universities: University of Texas, Austin, Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University and Lamar University and researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

“As an R2 institution, PVAMU is in elite company. This project will bolster our R2 status as we map out a path toward excellence in research,” said PVAMU Vice President of Research & Innovation Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., P.E., MBA. “Additionally, research will offer numerous benefits to PVAMU students. The integration of concepts and experiences from this research will strengthen the coursework in PVAMU agriculture classes, grant students valuable research experience working with human subjects and better prepare them to enter the workforce or pursue graduate studies.”

Addressing the challenges facing the Gulf Coast requires:

  • a scientific understanding of how the Earth system and the water cycle will change in the coming decades; 
  • how anthropogenic alterations will affect the water cycle and air pollution through urbanization and human migration, water infrastructure and land cover change; and 
  • how community-level green infrastructure intended to mitigate these stressors can, in turn, alter physical processes and the water cycle.

“In addition to increasing frequency, disasters are becoming more complex. I believe this research will expose me to new and complex challenges communities face in times of disaster,” said Estwick. “More important, it will better position me to make meaningful contributions to problem solving and the creation of solutions that improve the quality of life for residents and businesses as they prepare to mitigate, respond to and recover from disasters.”

The Urban Integrated Field Lab will help determine which processes and variables need to be captured in regional-scale hydrological and atmospheric models. This will help represent the conditions experienced by local communities and help inform adaptation strategies and develop an understanding of the linkages between and within natural, built and social systems in urbanized regions to better support natural and human resilience.

“This grant affords me the opportunity to join an excellent multi-disciplinary team of research scientists,” said Estwick. “Given the diverse challenges and complexities in the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA, I am looking forward to working with stakeholder groups on new challenges and being part of an extremely competent research team that will generate cutting-edge solutions to those challenges.”

This story originally appeared in PVAMU Research and Innovation’s December edition of On The R.I.S.E.

-PVAMU-