[Music]
Matthew Malecha: Well most communities will have
a comprehensive plan, hazard mitigation plans
parks and recreation plans, capital improvement plans
and unfortunately, what happens is, most of the times these plans wont
communicate well enough.
The project we're working on is Costal Vulnerability, with Dr. Phil Berke.
Phil Berke: Our end goal in the current project is for communities
and the various local agencies to be able to work together
in a more coordinated and integrated fashion.
To help them build higher quality, stronger, mitigation plans.
We have to have experts at translating the knowledge to practice.
And Dr. Cooper and his group,
in Texas Target Communities are very good at that.
Dr. John T. Cooper, Jr: We start by asking folks in the community
what issues, they are concerned with.
And then we take the things that they tell us,
and then we try to apply it to research.
And then from there we are learning together.
Because I believe in the end, their contributions, the local knowledge,
the indigenous knowledge, enhances the research.
Phil Berke: They want us to do the good science, but there asking that
we translate that knowledge we're generating to action.
To see the end user, who are the front lines, their the boots.
And we're trying to translate it so they can use it on the ground level.
Jaekyung Lee: My focus in this project is measuring how
vulnerability will be used in its 12 different socioeconomic indicators.
Siyu Yu: We are developing them into four or five categories
such as land development and capital improvement and
post disaster improvements.
David Salazar: I think its very important
to have people from the community.
They actually take ownership and feel that they're a part of a planning
for their future generations,
our future generations.
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