Christopher Emrich

Dr. Emrich is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Public Administration within the School of Public Administration and a founding member of the newly formed National Center for Integrated Coastal Research at University of Central Florida (UCF Coastal). His research/practical service includes applying geospatial technologies to emergency management planning and practice, long-term disaster recovery, and the intersection of social vulnerability and community resilience in the face of catastrophe. From 2004 – 2007, he provided geospatial support for response and long term recovery to the state of Florida and has since been actively involved in identifying long term recovery trends and drivers in disaster-stricken areas nationwide. Dr. Emrich is actively working toward transitioning knowledge from academia and research into real-world applications where he has most recently assisted in building empirically based and results-oriented recovery programs in several states and US territories. He has been a key player in the development of theory, data, metrics, methods, applications, and spatial analytical models for understanding the newly emergent field of hazard vulnerability science and the often very different pattern of disaster recovery across communities.