Publications

Diurnal temperature range: A climatological primer for health researchers

Published in PLoS One, 2026

A 1950–2022 ERA5-Land analysis finds that diurnal temperature range has significantly declined across most of the continental U.S., driven by minimum temperatures rising faster than maximums due to increasing humidity, cloud cover, and precipitation—suggesting reduced health risk from anthropogenic warming, though clinical evidence is still needed to confirm DTR’s direct causal role in health outcomes.

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A population-based, demand-aware framework for measuring structural road network redundancy

Published in Journal of Transport Geography, 2026

This paper proposes a graph-theory based methodology for calculating road network redundancy that considers origin-level demand.

Rural-Urban Disparities in Helene’s Disaster Assistance in Western North Carolina

Published in Journal of the Appalachian Institute for Health and Wellness, 2025

This study finds that FEMA aid following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic September 2024 flooding in Western North Carolina was distributed inequitably—with rural counties, particularly in the southwest, receiving disproportionately less assistance despite higher at-risk populations and, in some cases, higher rainfall, and it offers policy recommendations to address these disparities in future disaster responses.

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One Belt, Many Roads: Investigating China’s foreign investment and land-use impacts in Southeast Asia

Published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 2025

This paper examines how China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) FDI impacts land-cover and land-use change in Southeast Asia.

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Impacts of weather-related road closures on daily habitual travel in North Carolina

Published in Journal of Transport Geography, 2024

This paper considers the acute and cumulative impact of weather-related road closures in North Carolina and finds that rural areas across the state have been most vulnerable to extreme impacts.

Trends in recovery aid concentration following Hurricane Florence in North Carolina: Exploring the role of physical damage, community vulnerability, and Hurricane Matthew

Published in Environmental Hazards, 2023

This paper considers trends in federal aid payout after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina and found that divergences in federal aid could be partially predicted by social variables after accounting for physical variables.

Local news sentiment towards FEMA recovery efforts after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina

Published in Disasters, 2023

This paper examines local news framing after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. While initial coverage was often positive, subsequent coverage in the weeks, months, and years following the storm increasingly reflected the challenges and frustrations experienced by residents navigating complex disaster recovery aid programs.

Community perceptions of a floodplain buyout program in Charlotte, North Carolina

Published in Natural Hazards, 2023

This paper examines community perceptions of post buyout land use in Charlotte, North Carolina and finds that community members agree that the floodplain buyout program is effective in reducing flood risk. However, the results indicated that there are salient inequities in “second-level” success of buyout programs (beyond reducing flood risk) where communities with less social and economic capital benefit less from buyout financial incentives and post-buyout land use.

Disruption to EMS Service During Flood Scenarios in Western North Carolina

Published in Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 2022

This paper analyzes accessibility for EMS provisioning during a historical and modeled flood scenario in Western NC and finds that network disruption during flood events is a major concern for the study area.

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Examining the shifting role of the human in disaster studies

Published in Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society, 2022

This review essay considers the development of the field of disaster studies

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Trends in Flood Insurance Behavior Following Hurricanes in North Carolina

Published in North Carolina Geographer, 2021

This study examines county level NFIP insurance uptake behavior after six major hurricanes in North Carolina to understand the relationship between experiencing a hurricane and novel insurance uptake in the following year, and finds conflicting results as to whether experiencing a hurricane is associated with a comparative increase in novel insurance uptake as compared to counties that did not experience hurricane damage.

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