Other Projects
FIRE-PLAN: Planning for Imminent Ignition in the Southern U.S: Stakeholder-driven Challenges and Opportunities for Wildfire Mitigation and Preparedness
- The project aims to bring forth key challenges to effective wildfire mitigation in the U.S. South. The team is discussing concerns with practitioners and academics, assessing the integration of wildfire risk management in plans and regulations in the Southern U.S., and understanding preparedness and response planning and coordination of public-private stakeholders to enhance healthcare access before, during, and after a wildfire.
- The TxTC team conducted a stakeholder workshop to bring together professionals who have participated in interviews and field sites across the U.S, as well as wildfire experts and practitioners (9 total participants). The daylong workshop included wildfire and emergency managers, local government officials, and members of the Texas Department of Emergency Management. The project will end in 2026.
Funding: National Science Foundation
Team: Siyu Yu, Jason Moats, Carlee Purdham, Tara Goddard, James Tate, Matthew Malecha, John Cooper, Jaimie Hicks Masterson, Cedric Shy, Gabre Ural, Kate Thompson, Seth Jordan
Funding: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Team: Shannon Van Zandt, Genny Carrillo, Jonathan Robert Halket, Ivis Garcia, Jaimie Hicks Masterson, Jeewasmi Thapa
Hispanic Serving Institutions Research Centers of Excellence, Texas A&M University's The Center of Excellence in Hispanic Housing Studies
- The establishment of the Center of Excellence in Hispanic Housing Studies (CoHHS) is a collaborative project between Texas A&M University researchers and partner organizations aiming to improve environmental health and economic well-being of Hispanic households and communities with a focus on health, housing, and hazards by utilizing innovative community informed practices, policies, and products. The center aims to answer three key questions: 1) Where are Hispanics migrating and settling?, 2) What are the public and private influences on development patterns and locational outcomes for Hispanics?, and 3) What are the impacts of these patterns on environmental risk (e.g., flooding, heat, toxins, toxic facilities) and health (e.g., asthma, obesity) outcomes?
- In the coming years, TxTC will engage deeply in Hispanic communities across Texas, seeking input to identify issues and create evidence-based toolkits that can be deployed to address challenges.The TxTC team conducted a stakeholder workshop to bring together professionals who have participated in interviews and field sites across the U.S, as well as wildfire experts and practitioners (9 total participants). The daylong workshop included wildfire and emergency managers, local government officials, and members of the Texas Department of Emergency Management. The project will end in 2026.
Plan Integration for Resilience Planning™ (PIRS)
- This was the final year of the 10-year-long project: the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ (PIRS™) with funding from the Department of Homeland Security. Texas Target Communities assisted the research team complete engagement with communities and develop a new guidebook. PIRS™ assesses how networks of local plans target hazardous areas and evaluates the coordination of local plans. Now communities can assess multiple hazards, including flooding, extreme heat, and wildfire, across their network of plans to determine alignment and integration. Get the latest on research and case studies at planintegration.com
Funding: Department of Homeland Security
Team: Siyu Yu, Matthew Malecha, Jaimie Hicks Masterson, Justin Golbabai, Philip Berke (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
Funding: Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF)
Team: Manish Dixit (TAMU), Aoife Houlihan Wiberg (University of Bath), Christina Demski (University of Bath), Freja Nygaard Rasmussen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Edwin Zea Escamilla (ETH Zurich), Geraoid Lydon (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Daniel Satola (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Harlem Acevedo (ITM University), Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang (ITB- Bandung institute of Technology), Jaimie Hicks Masterson (TAMU), Jeewasmi Thapa (TAMU)
Participatory collaborative research to enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation in underserved communities in Asia and North and South America
- This is our first-ever international grant, funded by the Canadian Government and made up of an international team of researchers (from Canada, Switzerland, Columbia, Indonesia, England, and the U.S.)!
- This project will study how households in the Texas Gulf Coast region experience and prepare for extreme weather events. TxTC will engage residents in Port Arthur and Southeast Texas to understand and enhance current practices of post-disaster recovery and rebuilding. The aim is to enhance the process of rebuilding in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term resilience to future disasters.
Texas A&M Center for Environmental Research (TiCER): The Community Engagement Core (CEC)
- The objective of the CEC is to develop, test, and disseminate data-driven community engagement interventions that increase local resilience to existing environmental risk and climate change, particularly in underserved communities. TxTC is working with the research team to engage with TxTC communities (like Liberty County and partners in Port Arthur) to determine major challenges related to climate extremes, environmental health disparities, and environmental justice vulnerabilities. Together, we will develop prevention/intervention strategies to address these issues in the form of Master Plans, concentrating on low-impact development solutions. Landscape performance models will be run on devised solutions with community input to quality projected impacts by addressing both environmental and social resilience.
Funding: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Team: Galen Newman, Carolyn Cannon, Ivis Garcia, Nasir Ghareibeh, Sungmin Lee, Arnold Vedlitz
Funding: TAMU College of Architecture Small Grant
Team: Mo Hu, Boqian Xu, Benjamin Ennemoser, Xinuye Ye, Yiyang Shu, Jeewasmi Thapa
Communicating of AI-Generated Images in Design Education and Outreach
- As part of TxTC’s outreach project with Nolanville, students and researchers explored the use of five Generative AI tools in landscape design visualization. The research studies investigated students’ evaluations, neurocognitive responses, and visual attention, offering insights into how AI tools can enhance education and outreach in architecture and landscape design.