Columbia Hurricane Migration

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Columbia Hurricane Migration#

Fabien Cottier, Mona Hemmati, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, and Kytt MacManus

This project is integrating data on tropical cyclones, migration, and vulnerability to examine to what extent flooding and hurricanes contribute to shape migration flows in the US. The project also asks how early warning systems can be appropriately leveraged to inform risk reduction with a view towards decreasing disproportionate impact from different types of floods / hurricanes.

Datasets#

Tropical hurricanes: - Historical TC tracks: IBTrACS (Knapp et al. 2010, 2018) - Synthetic TC tracks: Columbia CHAZ (Lee et al. 2018)

Migration: - American Community Survey - Social Media Dataset, call phone records, credit report data

Social vulnerability: - US social vulnerability grid (CIESIN 2023), other suitable composite indicators of vulnerability.

Unit of analysis / level of aggregation will depend on spatial resolution of the data used to measure migration flows and social vulnerability.

Note: we are still working on identifying the most appropriate data sources for migration and social vulnerability indicators

Team Bios#

  • Fabien Cottier: Fabien is an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. In his research, Fabien studies the causes and consequences of migration and displacement with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, he investigates how environmental change affects migration patterns, as well as under what condition does in-migration result in intergroup conflict. Fabien holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Geneva (2018) and a Master in Comparative and International Studies from the ETH Zürich (2012).

  • Mona Hemmati: Mona Hemmati serves as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, specializing in the intricate nexus of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability associated with weather-related natural disasters, including floods and tropical cyclones. Her research commitment is steadfastly anchored in the pursuit of effective strategies for mitigating community vulnerability and enhancing resilience in the context of climate change, encompassing a comprehensive disaster management approach. Hemmati’s research scope extends to the investigation of sustainability issues, with a specific emphasis on the complex interplay of environmental, social, and governance factors intertwined with natural disasters. Driven by the urgency of the global climate crisis, her research serves as a catalyst for bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and practical policy implementation, thereby contributing to a sustainable future.

  • Andrew Kruczkiewicz: Andrew Kruczkiewicz has more than 10 years of experience working with the humanitarian, development and disaster management sectors, including Red Cross, World Food Programme and World Bank. He helps design early-warning systems, impact-based forecasting standard operating procedures and contributes to the design of global climate policy. Andrew conducts research on extreme weather and climate events focusing on both individual hazards, such as cyclones, floods and other hydrometeorological hazards, as well as compound events. He is involved in the application of climate and weather data including forecasting, risk assessment and integration within policy and decision making. Andrew is Principal Investigator of NASA funded research project: Towards A Global Flood & Flash Flood Early Warning Early Action System Driven by NASA Earth Observations, which seeks to increase the ability to forecast various types of floods, including flash floods, and inform early warning and early action standard operating procedures.He is faculty lecturer in the Columbia Climate School’s Climate and Society graduate program and is Co-Director of the Climate School Network: Sustainable and Resilient Living in an Era of Increasing Disasters.Andrew serves on numerous national and international task forces and committees, including the World Meteorological Organization Task Team on ENSO Information, and the UN OCHA IASC Early Warning Analysis Cell. He frequently appears on national and international television, radio, and in print.

  • Kytt MacManus: Kytt MacManus has been an interdisciplinary researcher for 17 years as a member of CIESIN at Columbia University. He is the Assistant Systems Engineer for the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), and leads a curriculum development project for the NASA Transform to Open Science Training TOPS-T program. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia College where he teaches Intro to GIS for Sustainable Development, Spatial Analysis for Sustainable Development, and Building Climate Justice: Co-Creative Coastal Resilience Planning. He is a licensed Part 107 sUAS pilot. MacManus has extensive experience with global dataset and web application development. His research interests include the development of data driven web applications for decision support; the integration of global population and housing census to support policy; and the use of Python for Scientific Computing. MacManus has developed several interactive map-based decision support tools, such as AdaptMap Jamaica Bay, which demonstrates how sea-level rise affects storm-driven flooding in Jamaica Bay, New York, and the Hudson River Flood Impacts Decision Support System. He has contributed to research projects related to population estimation, coastal hazards, and flood impacts. His contributions include developing algorithms for data integration, analysis, and distribution. He is a skilled programmer in Python, JavaScript, and R and has expertise in various GIS tools like ESRI ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, ArcGIS Server, and ArcGIS Online.

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