Achievement

Interdisciplinary research has distinctly improved within this reporting period. The students are combining in their research engineering, economics, and hazard mitigation planning policy. The combination of this research by students is providing results that are unique and useful in local and regional governments in planning for future hazard mitigation. One trainee’s research combined engineering and political science titled "Hazard Mitigation Planning Policy in Local and Regional Government" in which a conceptual model of emergency management in the United States was created, and the results of a statistical analysis of the cost to single and multi-jurisdictional planning entities for the creation of a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). Results of the analysis indicate that cost of an HMP varies significantly depending on the population of, and the frequency of natural hazards experienced by the planning jurisdiction.