April 26-27 conference: Avoiding disasters of the next big storm

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jade Boyd
713-348-6778
jadeboyd@rice.edu

April 26-27 conference: Avoiding disasters of the next big storm

Rice, TAMU-Galveston team draw experts to discuss structural, nonstructural plans

HOUSTON — (April 13, 2016) — Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center (SSPEED) is joining forces with Texas A&M University’s Center for Texas Beaches and Shores to bring a slate of leading experts in engineering, economics, law, environment and public policy to Houston April 26-27 to discuss how to protect Houston and Galveston from the devastating impacts of a powerful storm.

SSPEED Center Director Phil Bedient (left) and Co-director Jim Blackburn (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

“Tremendous progress has been made since our last public conference,” said Phil Bedient, director of the SSPEED Center and Rice’s Herman Brown Professor of Engineering. “The state’s leading academic researchers at Rice, Texas A&M University at Galveston, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston and other institutions are using their collective understanding of the region’s vulnerabilities to craft a comprehensive strategy that will move us closer to a more resilient coast.”

The conference, titled “Avoiding Disasters: How To Reduce Impacts From the Next Big Storm,” is intended for a broad audience of concerned citizens, business and industry leaders, emergency managers, government officials and academic researchers. Nearly 100 people have already registered for the event, which will be held at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative.

The April 26 keynote speaker, Bas Jonkman, chair of the hydraulic structures and flood risk section of Delft Technical University’s Department of Hydraulic Engineering in Delft, Netherlands, will discuss the latest flood-risk innovations from Holland. In Holland, 30 percent of land is below sea level and 60 percent of the country is at risk for coastal and river flooding. The April 27 keynote speaker, Tom Campbell, managing partner of the Houston office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and former general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will discuss how to design a functional, voluntary exchange for carbon and ecosystem services. Other speakers will include Bill Merrell of TAMU-Galveston, Clint Dawson of UT-Austin, Lynn Scarlett of the Nature Conservancy and John Hofmeister, founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and former president of Shell Oil Co.

The conference will feature discussions on hurricane protection options for Houston, including structural alternatives like the mid-bay option and coastal spine discussed in the SSPEED Center’s Houston-Galveston Area Protection System 2015 Report (available for download here), as well as nonstructural alternatives like the proposed ecosystem services exchange and the Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area.

Media interested in attending should contact Jade Boyd, associate director of news and media relations, at 713-348-6778 or jadeboyd@rice.edu.

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VIDEO is available at:

https://youtu.be/UYlnEC3fs0I
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2016/04/0418_SSPEED-pbjb-lg-10z1vxs.jpg
CAPTION: SSPEED Center Director Phil Bedient (left) and Co-director Jim Blackburn
(Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,910 undergraduates and 2,809 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceUniversity.