Kaveh Faraji receives Student Merit Award at SRA

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Kaveh Faraji, a second year PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, focusing on Disaster Resilience, received the Student Merit Award from the Ecological Risk Assessment specialty group at the Society for Risk Analysis Conference. Kaveh, whose research interests include risk assessment, machine learning, and Bayesian networks, presented a poster titled “Risk Assessment of Contaminated Sites Vulnerable to Inundation due to Sea Level Rise and Flood.”

This study explores the potential impacts of SLR and flood on contaminated sites in contiguous US and presents a framework for finding potential sites that are potentially exposed to inundation. It is envisioned that such information could support prioritization of contaminated sites for further assessment. Geo-spatial information from multiple organizations is used to understand inundation potential of contaminated sites. Then the social vulnerability index and exposure index is used to assess contaminated site locations. By considering these three factors, it is possible to develop geo-spatial insights.

The Ecological Risk Assessment specialty group focuses on evaluating the impacts of human activities on ecological systems and the services they provide. As with human health risk assessment, ecological risk assessment has its roots in estimating exposure and risk or hazard from chemicals in the environment, but has expanded in recent years to include the wide range of stressors facing ecological receptors. Risks due to invasive or non-indigenous species, genetically modified organisms, and climate change are being evaluated. In contrast to the relatively small spatial scales of past assessments, cutting edge assessments are being conducted at much larger spatial scales. In addition to risk calculations, emphasis is now being placed on more effective use of this information to support decision making and long-term planning in the context of ecosystem services.

Congratulations Kaveh on your award!

Published January 14, 2020