Assessing the public health risk due to tropical cyclone impacts on petrochemical facilities
Implementing Organization
Mississippi State University
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$1,492,014
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Gulf Research Program (NASEM - GRP)
Funding Program
NASEM Gulf Research Program Grants
Details
Project Category
Science
Project Actions
Environmental Research
Targeted Resources
Project Description
Natural disasters have long overburdened communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Among them, tropical cyclones (TCs) are the most consequential. Direct hazards from TCs include high winds, heavy rains, and storm surges, but TCs can also beget other, equally destructive hazards. The latter include petrochemical spills from aboveground storage tanks (ASTs), which are critical infrastructure to the Gulf region’s oil and gas industry. The communities that are most affected by TCs and petrochemical spills remain among the poorest nationwide and, to this day, lack the capacity to deal with the plethora of health, environmental, and socioeconomic consequences that have traditionally followed in their wake. An added burden is climate change, which is expected to exacerbate existing TC hazards, thus raising the specter of more intense storms, leading to more frequent severe spills. What remains unknown is the potential extent of these spills and their human health outcomes. We propose a modeling framework that will allow us to discern the spill dynamics for ASTs and their human health implications in response to TC hazards, both in the current climate and under plausible scenarios of future carbon emissions.
Contact
Boniface FosuNone
bof20@msstate.edu
Project Website
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