No one can stop the unrelenting power of a deadly hurricane. However, researchers at Texas A&M University are collaborating with communities in Texas and beyond to ensure they are as prepared as possible to minimize damage to life and property from these storms.
To help communities in disaster-prone landscapes, the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas (IDRT), housed under the Texas A&M Division of Research, focuses on converting research and data analytics into decision-support tools to enhance community resilience to disasters. Led by Dr. Sam Brody, IDRT emphasizes long-term recovery and mitigation strategies for communities.
“IDRT is a research institute that’s primarily focused on taking the best research science and data analytics and converting that to decision support to make communities more resilient to disasters over time,” Brody explains.
He describes resilience as the ability to withstand disturbances like hurricanes, floods or tornadoes and still function in an optimal way. “It’s not necessarily about falling down and building back to where you were, because where you start, both as an individual and a community, may not be in a resilient way. It’s really about accommodating change and disturbances, and sometimes shocks, and persisting over the long term, which is why I think it’s so fitting to be placed at Texas A&M University — because that philosophy and that culture are paramount in our community.”
Serving Texas after Hurricane Harvey
IDRT began serving Texans following the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The most severe damage from the storm didn’t come from high winds, but from record-breaking rainfall. The storm stalled over Texas for days, dumping over 60 inches of rain in some areas, making it the wettest tropical cyclone in U.S. history.
This led to massive, widespread flooding, particularly in the Houston metropolitan area (which includes Houston, The Woodlands and Sugar Land), where one-third of the city was submerged. For perspective, that area is larger than the entire state of New Jersey. The resulting damage, estimated at $125 billion, was tied with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone on record. The floods displaced over 30,000 people and damaged or destroyed more than 200,000 homes.
Brody and his team are not first responders. However, what they do for the impacted communities is important not only in recovering from storm damage but also in potentially lessening the effects of future storms.
Once the storms pass, Brody and his team visit the affected communities and collaborate with city officials to mitigate future flood damage risks. “We engage once the water recedes and the dust has settled, and then we go in and we think about long-term solutions. We work with local communities. We bring to bear literal supercomputing powers to local communities that don’t necessarily have computing resources.
“We think about how these communities can do better long term in the face of future disasters in terms of economy, in terms of their structures and housing stock, and we build these collaborative learning tools and decision support tools to help make those better decisions over the long term,” Brody said.
The goal is to help community leaders think of how they can implement proactive mitigation techniques that could reduce the impact of future weather events. “The hope is that these future events are barely noticeable. They’re ripples in the pond versus tidal waves of catastrophe. That’s really what our brand of resiliency is, and that’s why we don’t rush in,” Brody said.
Following Hurricane Harvey, IDRT’s data analytics helped support 44 state-level recommendations, resulting in significant investments in mitigation solutions. IDRT’s work also extends beyond Texas, influencing disaster resilience globally.
“The work we do resonates in this country and all over the world,” Brody said. “We’re in South Korea; we’re in the Netherlands. We’re working with the states of Maine and Louisiana and Florida. It starts in Texas, but ripples out from there, and that’s again about extending our impact for the better.”
Engaging communities in recovery and prevention
The institute also fosters student engagement through initiatives such as the Disaster Data Reconnaissance Center and undergraduate research internships.
In 2022, the Digital Risk Infrastructure Program (DRIP) was launched, collaborating with under-resourced, flood-prone Texas communities to create actionable data and inform local decision-making, collect data and address their flooding issues. This program provides IDRT with the avenue for research and the ability to empower communities with tools to prepare for future flooding disasters.
Dr. Nick Hoskins ’18 ’20 ’24, an assistant research scientist at IDRT and director of the Disaster Data Reconnaissance Center, uses drone technology to map flood risks at the household level. He said that highlighting the transition from satellite imagery to high-resolution drone imagery can predict flood levels to within an inch, which is crucial for flood insurance and planning purposes.
“We’re strictly pre- and post-data analysis,” Hoskins said. “The pre- side involves getting the data or providing that decision support a week or two out from the forecast. On the post- side, IDRT analyzes what damage or impacts have occurred. We can use data-gathering technologies to get a better understanding of how it happened and better ways to grow from it.
“Resilience is more than bouncing back and just forgetting about it,” Hoskins said. “It’s about the proactive response, preparedness and mitigation, and then on the tail end of the event, learning from it and then growing into a better system to navigate the next storm.”
Research grounded in service
Brody and Hoskins attribute the success of IDRT to the culture at Texas A&M, which supports and serves the people of Texas and beyond.
“Texas A&M, I think, is the best place to house IDRT because they take the idea of societal impact, selfless service and changing the world for the better more seriously than any other academic institution I’ve ever known or been affiliated with,” Brody said. “A&M really believes in selfless service. It’s not a tagline. They’re not just talking the talk. They’re doubling down and immersing themselves and teaching the students to get involved in society in such a genuine way.”
“I don’t think we could have created IDRT as successfully as we have at any other university,” Hoskins said. “A&M is above all universities that I know about, and really genuinely buys into this idea of selfless service; they buy into the idea that we’re not just here to learn, but we’re here to change the world for the better.
“It’s reflected in the agencies that are attached to Texas A&M. It’s reflected in the undergraduate training. I really think IDRT thrives because it stands on the shoulders of A&M’s culture and practice.”
