Audiences that view sea level rise as a distant hazard or hold doubtful or dismissive beliefs about climate change in general may not be receptive to information about this hazard. This study explores how maps may address these challenges to sea level rise communication by making visible the impacts of sea level rise on local communities. Using an interactive map of sea level rise in Sarasota, Florida and an accompanying online survey, it considers how college students from nearby and far away from Sarasota, and with different views about climate change, vary in their risk perceptions. Results show that, consistent with spatial optimism bias, risk perceptions increased more from pre- to post map for respondents far away from Sarasota than for those nearby, while respondents who were initially doubtful or cautious about climate change showed larger increases in risk perceptions than those who were disengaged or alarmed.

Exposure to natural disasters like hurricanes negatively impacts the mental and physical health of populations, and evacuation is an important step taken to prevent these adverse health events. This study uses data from a large representative sample of U.S. Gulf Coast residents to explore the determinants of hurricane evacuation. In December 2017, data were collected from 3030 residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—2557 of whom reported being impacted during the 2017 hurricane season. Bivariate analyses were conducted using prevalence differences and tested for statistical significance with chi-square tests. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with hurricane evacuation. One-third of the respondents (919 of 2557; 35.9%) evacuated from a hurricane that impacted the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2017. The determinants of hurricane evacuation in this population were: residing in a mobile home, higher perception of storm surge risk, higher perception of wind risk, self-sufficiency, carrying flood insurance, and reliance on media and family for evacuation decisions. These findings may be relevant for reducing the adverse health effects of hurricanes by improving emergency planning and evacuation in this highly vulnerable region.

Rapid urbanization, climate change, and aging infrastructure pose significant challenges to achieving sustainability and resilience goals in urban building energy use. Although retrofitting offers a viable solution to mitigate building energy use, there has been limited analysis of its effects under various weather conditions associated with climate change in urban building energy use simulations. Moreover, certain parameters in energy simulations necessitate extensive auditing or survey work, which is often impractical. This research proposes a framework that integrates various datasets, including building footprints, Lidar data, property appraisals, and street view images, to conduct neighborhood-scale building energy use analysis using the Urban Modeling Interface (UMI), an Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM), in a coastal neighborhood in Galveston, Texas. Seven retrofit plans and three weather conditions are considered in the scenarios of building energy use. The results show that decreasing the U-value of building envelopes helps reduce energy use, while increasing the U-value leads to higher energy consumption in the Galveston neighborhood. This finding provides direction for coastal Texas cities, like Galveston, to update building standards and implement retrofit measures.

Cartographic display of cross-scale phenomena and user-centered design are considered through a discussion of the development of an interactive web map depicting local-to-national economic impacts of hurricane storm surge events in Galveston Bay, Texas. Map development and design (as informed by stakeholder focus groups) is described, including approaches to presenting complex, cross-scale impacts of surge events across multiple years and scenarios. Particular consideration is given to how designs may communicate complexity without overly taxing users’ mental and perceptual resources (measured via NASA task-load index) or outstripping their mapping/domain expertise. The map produced uses linked map views to communicate multiple, cross-scale storm surge impacts. The production process and associated user testing highlighted the importance of matching tool complexity to users’ needs and levels of expertise, including through the use of tiered interface design. Optimizing the design of such maps to meet users’ needs is essential to fostering public hazard literacy.

As climate change intensifies, resulting in more severe rainfall events, coastal cities globally are witnessing significant life and property losses. A growingly crucial component for flood prevention and relief are urban storm flood simulations, which aid in informed decision-making for emergency management. The vastness of data and the intricacies of 3D computations can make visualizing the urban flood effects on infrastructure daunting. This study offers a 3D visualization of the repercussions of hurricane storm surge flooding on Galveston, TX residences, illustrating the impact on each structure and road across varied storm conditions. We employ target detection to pinpoint house door locations, using door inundation as a metric to gauge potential flood damage. Within a GIS-based framework, we model the damage scope for residences exposed to varying storm intensities. Our research achieves three core goals: 1) Estimating the storm inundation levels on homes across different storm conditions; 2) Assessing first-floor elevations to categorize housing damages into three distinct groups; and 3) Through visualization, showcasing the efficacy of a proposed dike designed to shield Galveston Island from future storm surge and flood events.

Recent debates about the state of geography raise valuable questions about how the discipline can and should change in response to shifting institutional realities. Focusing on the breadth and interdisciplinarity of geography, these discussions often overlook the role of pedagogy—particularly graduate training—in adapting the discipline to new institutional landscapes. Drawing on experiences as current and recent geography doctoral students, we identify institutional seedlings of opportunity that can be cultivated toward a spectrum of alternative doctoral training models. These alternatives offer significant opportunities to better prepare early-career geographers for success and to solidify geography's position as a leader in interdisciplinary research.