land resources

More than 75 leading land-use scholars will explore the growing, worldwide impact of natural hazards and global warming in the 13th annual conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights Feb. 18-23 at the Texas A&M Memorial Student Center.

As La Grange, Texas recovers from post Hurricane Harvey flooding, residents and elected officials are considering Texas A&M student proposals that address the town’s infrastructure, housing and transportation needs.

The field of urban planning is gaining interest as cities around the world, including nearby Houston, are facing increased exposure to weather-related risks and hazards ranging from sea level rise and flooding to temperature build-up and urban heat island effect.

Municipalities are more responsive to natural disaster plans that focus on a single threat, such as flooding, than they are to comprehensive resiliency strategies, according to a study evaluating how U.S. cities are adapting to the impacts of climate change.

As tens of thousands of Texans undergo a long, difficult recovery from Hurricane Harvey, numerous faculty and students initiatives at Texas A&M University are helping individuals and communities learn how to emerge from the damage and mitigate the effects of future disasters.

Houston's growth has created a city at risk to devastating floods, said Sam Brody, a flood impact expert and professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, in a June 16, 2017 article in The Guardian, where he said “it’s not if, but when” a natural disaster will strike the metropolis.

Residents of Sunnyside, a Houston area neighborhood beset by water and air pollution and prone to flooding, will collaborate with College of Architecture students to develop plans to improve their community and create a roadmap for future growth.

The Houston-Galveston region is even more vulnerable to hurricane flood damage today than it was when Hurricane Ike struck in 2008, concluded Md Yousuf Reja ’16 in his final Master of Urban Planning project.

Not only do shady landscapes offer relief from the summer heat, they can also reduce heat-related medical emergencies, according to a study undertaken by Robert Brown, professor of landscape architecture at Texas A&M, and four colleagues.

After each heavy rain last spring on the streets of an impoverished, east Houston industrial neighborhood, students from nearby Furr High School trained by Texas A&M graduate planning students mapped and tested the toxicity of storm floodwaters.

Interdisciplinary groups of faculty and students in five U.S. universities will pair with counterparts in The Netherlands in a research project led by Sam Brody, professor of urban planning, to determine how to reduce the impact of coastal flooding.

Six former students from Texas A&M’s College of Architecture who have risen to the top of their respective fields while making significant public service contributions were honored as outstanding alumni during an Oct. 23, 2015 banquet at the Miramont Country Club in Bryan.

A proposed “Ike Dike” to protect the Galveston/Houston area from hurricane storm surges should incorporate business parks, public spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares, concludes research funded by Texas A&M’s Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities.

Chris Mulder, one of South Africa’s top environmental designers and an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, will present “De-Urbanization: Creating Sustainable Rural New Towns” at 5:45 p.m. April 29 in Scoates Hall Room 208.

Texas A&M’s national prominence in disaster planning research is evidenced in the February 2015 Journal of the American Planning Association special issue in which four of the publication’s 10 articles were penned by Texas A&M faculty and former students.