A University of Texas at Arlington civil engineering researcher has received a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, to develop better methods to characterize, predict and cope with large Texas storms growing more unpredictable due to climate change.
A University of Texas at Arlington civil engineering researcher has received a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, to develop better methods to characterize, predict and cope with large Texas storms growing more unpredictable due to climate change.
Nick Fang, a UT Arlington associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is leading the $347,000 project that flows from the Corps through WEST Consultants.
The project will consider rainfall totals, discharge rates and other weather data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and many professional journals and publications. Fang also will work with state agencies like the Texas Water Development Board, regional flood control districts, river authorities and local entities.
Fang, who is the Robert S. Gooch Endowed Faculty Fellow in Civil Engineering, will study the causes of such large storms along with their hydrologic impacts. Texas has been hit by several large storms of late; Hurricane Harvey in 2017, for example, caused more than 100 deaths and $125 billion in damages.
“We will look for spatial patterns, trends and causes of these large storms based on the rainfall data we collect,” Fang said. “We hope to better prepare Texans for these storm events and through that save lives and property.”
Read more at: University of Texas at Arlington
Nick Fang (Photo Credit: UT Arlington)
