University of North Carolina
Center for Natural Hazards Resilience
About the Center
The vision of the Center for Natural Hazards Resilience (CNHR) is to be the premier university-based facility in the United States focused on research, education and workforce development, and transition to advance resilience to natural hazards.
Our mission is to conduct research and education to enhance the Nation’s ability to safeguard people, infrastructure, economies, and the natural environment from the impacts of natural hazards such as floods and hurricanes. CNHR will consider future climate trends such as sea level rise and changing storm characteristics, and the means by which communities can adapt.
Strategic Objectives
Expand our understanding of natural hazard risk and resilience through rigorous, integrated, interdisciplinary, and actionable research
Develop new tools and methods to assess and enhance physical, social, economic, environmental, and institutional resilience
Transfer the resulting knowledge, tools, and methods into widespread practice
Educate and train the next generation of scholars and practitioners
Research Collaborations and Partnerships
Research and education projects conducted by the CNHR involve over 3 dozen faculty and staff spanning multiple departments and Centers at UNC, over a dozen US Universities (including 4 MSIs) and one non-profit. As a pan university Center and Institute, CNHR seeks to engage with faculty and staff in multiple units across our campus. Below is a summary of UNC units that are actively collaborating with the CNHR.
ADCIRC Prediction System™ (APS)
ADCIRC is a system of computer programs for solving time dependent, free surface circulation and transport problems in two and three dimensions. These programs utilize the finite element method in space allowing the use of highly flexible, unstructured grids. Typical ADCIRC applications have included:
- prediction of storm surge and flooding
- modeling tides and wind driven circulation
- larval transport studies
- near shore marine operations
- dredging feasibility and material disposal studies
Coastal Resilience Center (CRC)
The CRC is a Department of Homeland (DHS) Center of Excellence that conducts research and education to enhance the resilience of people, infrastructure, economies, and the natural environment to the impacts of coastal hazards such as floods and hurricanes.
The Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) / Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences (EMES)
Since joining the UNC faculty in 1987, CNHR Director Rick Luettich has been located at IMS on the North Carolina coast. University support to IMS has been critical in enabling him to develop the research capabilities and the team required to successfully pursue major Center grants as occurred in 2007 and 2014. Since joining the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences (EMES) and as part of the efforts to grow UNC faculty participation in CNHR activities, EMES faculty Laura Moore and Antonia Sebastian have assumed significant roles in CNHR activities. Additionally, instrumentation / electronics technician Tony Whipple working in Luettich’s lab at IMS has played a key role in designing, building, deploying and maintaining the sensors used in the Sunny Day Flooding Project.
Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)
RENCI has been a long time collaborator with CNHR and has played an influential role in much of the Center’s hazards prediction research. RENCI HPC infrastructure and scientific staff have enabled application of the ADCIRC Prediction System specifically for the benefit of North Carolina. Funding provided through the DHS CRC and other collaborative proposals written with RENCI’s Earth Data Sciences director, Brian Blanton, have greatly expanded the size and impact of CNHR’s coastal hazards prediction activities.
Center for Resilient Communities and Environment (CRCE)
The CRCE, directed by Dr. Phil Berke, engages communities in a process of understanding their vulnerability to acute and chronic natural stressors, particularly in an era of climate change, and works to quantify the risk from those stressors and develop strategies to strengthen community and natural system resilience. CNHR / CRC has funded the CERC’s planning related projects including those that enabled the initial development, applications, and professional training associated Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS™). Current CNHR / CRC funding is expanding the PIRS™ methodology, heretofore focused primarily on flooding hazards, to include the assessment of a community’s network of plans for multiple hazards, including extreme heat and wildfire. An active partnership with FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Community Rating System has infused the PIRS™ into planning processes and the implementation of policies and actions that assist local governments, no matter what natural hazard challenge(s) they face.
Sunny Day Flooding Project
The CNHR has partnered with Dr. Miyuki Hino, Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-CH, and Dr. Katherine Arnarde, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at NC State University, to better understand the causes and impacts of chronic flooding in coastal communities. Low-lying coastal communities are increasingly confronted by recurrent flooding due to sea level rise (SLR). The tidal cycle now takes place on higher average sea levels, resulting in “sunny-day” flooding during high tides. The team has developed an instrumentation system that reports water levels and street flooding in real time via a project website. Altogether, ten of these instrument systems are currently deployed in Carolina Beach, NC; New Bern, NC; Beaufort, NC; and downeast Carteret County to document the occurrence of “sunny-day” flooding. Their data are showing that the problem is widespread and generally under reported by existing observations. CNHR funding is currently helping the team communicate these findings with local policy makers and develop strategies for adaptation and mitigation.
Calloway and Dorman Laboratory
For the past three years, CNHR has partnered with Dr. Cassandra Davis, Department of Public Policy at UNC CH, on projects to identify policy and actions to lessen the impacts of hazards on underserved communities. As described in further detail in the research section, Dr. Davis is leading several CRC funded projects including one that is building a national dashboard of non-profits who are prepared to assist with post disaster recovery.
Collaboratory for Coastal Adaptation Over
Space & Time (C-CoAST)
C-CoAST is a Research Coordination Network, led by Dr. Laura Moore, Department of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences at UNC-CH, and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to address grand challenges in coastal resilience. Dr. Moore directs the Coastal Environmental Change Lab and is engaged in research focused on the large-scale evolution of coastal environments with an emphasis on understanding the impacts of climate change on barrier islands. C-CoAST is exploring how developed coastal environments are shaped by interactions between human activities and natural processes. The CNHR partnered with Dr. Moore to submit and administer the C-CoAST RCN proposal as well as two subsequent unsuccessful (though highly rated) NSF CoPe Hub proposals. Additional efforts are ongoing to leverage the CNHR’s expertise in coastal hazard prediction with Dr. Moore’s expertise in morphology change, coupled human-natural coastal dynamics, community engagement, and the co-production of coastal research agendas.
Dynamics of Extreme Events, People and Places (DEEPP)
The DEEPP Project, led by Dr. Elizabeth Frankenberg, Department of Sociology at UNC-CH and former director of the Carolina Population Center, brings together social and environmental scientists and engineers to understand the environmental, economic, social, and psychological impacts of hurricanes and flooding in coastal Carolina communities. Survey data with satellite imaging, flood mapping, and storm surge mapping are combined to provide communities, planners, and policymakers with information they can use in preparing for and recovering from these disasters. CNHR has partnered with DEEPP on a successful UNC Creativity Hub grant and a, “Growing Convergence Research Award” from the National Science Foundation.