A new collaborative, DOE-funded initiative on future flood- and air pollution-risk planning in the Beaumont-Port Arthur region is putting local residents at the heart of its research approach through a design process that, researchers believe, will result in a final product that better serves the people who need it most.

More than 80% of our health is impacted by social determinants — where we live, work, eat and play. And the “live” part is crucial: Everything from air quality, access to healthy food and health care, and economic stability have an outsize impact on a person’s ability to get and stay well. But what happens when climate change begins to threaten those things?

Researchers from UT Austin have been awarded a prestigious grant from the UK’s Wellcome Trust to understand how flood and storm surge modeling could help inform infectious disease spread in Texas and beyond.

Assistant Professor Miriam Solis will use funds from the Gulf Research Program's Early Career Research Fellowship to advance environmental justice in the Rio Grande Valley by engaging youth perspectives in environmental planning.

Researchers with the University of Texas announced a new project earlier this month that will hopefully provide valuable data to the community: the Climate Atlas. The interactive map, funded by a grant from NASA, will highlight the neighborhoods in Austin being impacted by climate change.

Providing solutions for Austin communities that might be at the highest risk for climate-related hazards will be the focus of a new NASA-funded study at The University of Texas at Austin.

Since its launch, Planet Texas has been working with artists and creatives who have taken the experiences of climate change and turned them into digital artwork, photographs, dance performances, and more.

Beaumont-Port Arthur, home to the world’s largest oil refinery and a major hub in the global energy sector, is a convergence zone for risks of flooding and air pollution. Researchers at Lamar University, Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee will join UT Austin to operate the Southeast Texas Urban Integrated Field Lab (SETx-IFL).

Assistant Professor Katherine Lieberknecht is among a team of researchers who received $17M from the Department of Energy to establish a research center to study the impacts of flooding and air pollution in Beaumont.

Read outgoing Planet Texas 2050 chair Adam Rabinowitz’s reflections of his time at the helm of this research grand challenge, as well as incoming chair Paola Passalacqua’s forecast for Planet Texas 2050’s future.