Disaster Demography

Deborah Balk, Dylan Connor, Melanie Gall, Lori Hunter, Jenna Tipaldo, and Helen Wilson Burns

This team plans to integrate Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database (SHELDUS) data with American Community Survey microdata to examine how the burden of hazards on the U.S. population has changed over the past 15-years and what implications this has for risk mitigation and emergency preparedness efforts. SHELDUS data include property damage (in dollars) and fatality counts from natural hazard events.

Working Repository > github.com/d4hackweek/d4-disaster-demography

Datasets

• Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database (SHELDUS)

  • Direct losses from all natural hazards (property damage in $, fatality counts)

  • Time period: 2000-2022

  • Geography: counties

  • Inflation adjustment

• U.S. Census Bureau ACS Microdata (2009 - 2022)

  • County-level (aggregates) and PUMA-level (micro-data)

• Spatial and temporal integration challenges (next slide)

Team Bios

• Deborah Balk: Deborah Balk is Director of the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research, and Professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) and CUNY doctoral faculty in the sociology, public health and economics programs. Her expertise lies in spatial demography and the integration of earth and social science data and methods to address interdisciplinary policy questions, including those on urbanization, migration & population distribution, poverty and health, and intersections with climate change. She recently served as co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment and as a member of the society and economy working group of the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, and is a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Population and the US Census Bureau’s Census Scientific Advisory Committee. Prior to CUNY, she held appointments at Columbia University, the East-West Center, and the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in Demography from the University of California at Berkeley, and her Masters in Public Policy and AB in International Relations from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

• Dylan Connor: Dylan Connor is an associate professor at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at ASU and core faculty at the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC). As a computational social scientist and geographer, Dr. Connor studies how places shape human development, social inequality, and the transmission of advantages and disadvantages over extended historical periods. He specializes in causal inference and historical and spatial data infrastructure. In addition to his methodological contributions, he has published extensively on topics including the changing geography of the American Dream and spatial wealth inequality, the rural social mobility advantage, and on the economic history of Irish and Jewish immigration. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health, and discussed in popular outlets including Brookings, Business Insider, RTE, Marginal Revolution, and on prime-time radio.

• Melanie Gall: Melanie Gall is an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs where she co-directs the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security and manages the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS). She is a trained hazards geographer studying the interaction between natural hazards and society. Her expertise lies in risk metrics (e.g., disaster losses, indices, risk assessments), hazard mitigation and climate change adaptation planning as well as environmental modeling. She is a certified floodplain manager and holds a doctorate from the University of South Carolina (Geography), a master’s degree from the University of Salzburg in Austria (Geography/GIS), and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Heidelberg in Germany (Geography).

• Lori Hunter: Dr. Lori Hunter is Director of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder as well as Professor of Sociology. Dr. Hunter’s primary area of research is migration as related to environmental context. She examines these connections in rural South Africa and Mexico and has published findings and reviews in a wide variety of academic outlets such as Population and Development Review, the Annual Review of Sociology, and International Migration Review. Dr. Hunter has offered commentary for the UN as the organization works to integrate population issues into the Sustainable Development Agenda. She’s also consulted with the World Bank on migration, climate and gender, and her recent research on these topics has appeared in The Lancet, Global Environmental Change, Environmental Research Letters, Annual Review of Sociology, Population Research and Policy Review, Social Science Quarterly, and Society and Natural Resources. She also led the editorial team for the first International Handbook of Population & Environment (2023).

• Jenna Tipaldo: Jenna Tipaldo is a PhD student in the Environmental and Planetary Health Sciences at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH). She holds an advanced certificate in Demography from the CUNY Graduate Center, is a fellow with the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research, and served as a Fellow with the NYC Panel on Climate Change’s (NPCC) Health Working Group. Her work focuses on the health impacts of climate change and environmental justice concerns in urban settings using geographic information systems (GIS). She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY Hunter College, where she teaches undergraduate-level introductory statistics. Jenna has experience with science communication, having published writing and podcasts with PBS, StarTalk, and Sunrise Movement NYC.

• Helen Wilson Burns: Helen L. Wilson Burns is an environmental demographer and doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Studies and a graduate affiliate of the CU Population Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. She researches environmental demography, migration, and development through an interdisciplinary lens using quantitative methods. Helen contributes expertise in research design and analysis to multidisciplinary, multi-university collaborations investigating population and environmental change in Bangladesh, climate migration in Mexico, and climate shocks and elderly health in the rural United States. Originally from the mountains of Tennessee, Helen holds a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a MS in Environmental Studies from CU.