Author Archives: Emilee Lance

Entering Tsunami Hazard Zone

Look out the window of a car driving along Oregon’s coastal highway 101 and you will see many roadside signs indicating the boundaries of the coastal tsunami zone. Natural phenomena can cause massive amounts of damage to the communities that happen to lie in their paths, the effects of which can last days, months, and even years beyond the actual event. In the wake of disaster, people are often unable to access necessary resources or are left stranded waiting for help. Community design and engineering don’t always take into account the personal lived needs of those within the community, therefore a human centered approach is needed to compliment quantitative disaster projections and more accurately predict the most effective plan for community recovery.

This is where engineering and social science collide. Our guest this week is Amina Meselhe, a 2nd year PhD student in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Amina’s current PhD project involves simulating the damage and recovery trajectories for the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the event of a tsunami. Her self-described research goal is to “create tangible outcomes for people to hold onto”. Her acute awareness for disaster preparedness comes from the fact that she grew up in Louisiana seeing the damage that hurricanes can cause and the lasting effects they have on people.

Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7:00 pm PST on March 8th to hear Amina talk about what she is doing to improve the preparedness of communities along the Oregon coast, the research methods used by engineers to incorporate social science into their designs, and why “natural disaster” is a taboo term in the field.

An expert on experts!

How do you identify “an expert”? The answer to this question is more complex than you might think. Most of us might think of people with multiple degrees or extensive experience in a specific field as experts. However, as our guest this week is discovering, experts can be people with passion, people with connections or people with specific job titles. Recognizing the enacted and relationally valued characteristics of an expert is essential to creating systems where experts that reflect a community’s ideas and values are the ones making the decisions. One example is the community of people around and connected to the Puget Sound watershed region and the jurisdiction of the Puget Sound Partnership: an area spanning 12 counties and 28 recognized Tribal Nations. Large restoration efforts are underway to restore Puget Sound and prime the ecosystem for climate adaptation. These efforts hinge on not just access to climate adaptation knowledge, but who is recognized to apply such knowledge and the social structures to shape its uptake.

Our guest this week is Krista Harrington, a 4th year PhD Candidate in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Krista utilizes political ecology and science, technology, and society theory in environmental natural resource management. During her Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and time spent working in wildlife conversation, she kept asking herself “who are we going to for expertise?”. This question ultimately shaped the path of her PhD work and is how she is contributing to restoring Puget Sound.

Tune into 88.7 KBVR Corvallis this Sunday (Nov. 23rd) @ 7pm to hear Krista explain her approach to understanding how the Puget Sound community defines what an expert looks like and how they are developing effective pathways for expert integration into climate adaptation strategies.

Under the Bodhi Tree: Stories and Science

Have you ever heard of a Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa)? According to Buddhist history, the Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. A branch of the original tree was planted in Sri Lanka over 2000 years ago, making it the oldest historical tree in the world today. Clones of this original tree have been planted all over the world in Buddhist Temples and personal gardens. The Hawaiian islands contain an especially high concentration of clones from the apparent sacred lineage. Genomic analysis in the Denver lab can theoretically reveal what trees are descended directly from the original Bodhi tree. But the spread of these trees into an ecosystem from which they did not originate has raised the question as to whether they pose the risk of becoming a harmful invasive species.

This week on the show, we are joined by Jazlee Crowly, a 4th year PhD student in Integrative Biology whose work is as expansive as the Bodhi tree’s canopy. Using a transdisciplinary approach, a “purposely border-breaking” method, Jazlee weaves together botanical history, community memory, and genomic methods to explore the roles these trees play in Hawaiian ethnic and botanical landscapes. Jazlee’s work is conducted by invitation from local groups, particularly the Japanese-Buddhist community of the Kaua’i Soto Zen Temple Zenshuji. Jazlee conducts her field work during the annual Obon period, the Japanese celebration of ancestral spirits, and gives her time to helping with the celebration as a way of giving back to the people and places that steward these living lineages.

Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 6:30 pm PST on November 2nd to hear Jazlee explain the spiritual and ecological role that the Bodhi tree plays on the Hawaiian islands.