Speaker – Antonia Sebastian, UNC-Chapel Hill (IP & via Zoom – please see your email) and is hosted by Ethan Hyland. 

Seminar Title – Delineating Flood Risk in the Coastal Zone: Leveraging Numerical Models and Administrative Data to Understand Evolving Hazards, Exposure and Vulnerability

Bio – Dr. Sebastian is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she holds appointments in both the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences and the Environment, Ecology and Energy Program (E3P). Sebastian’s research focuses on flood risk reduction through improved hazard and risk delineation; more specifically, her research integrates principles from urban planning with methods from hydrology and engineering to understand how flood risks are evolving in response to changing human and environmental conditions. Her recent work investigates the combined impacts of climate and land use change on flood hazards in Eastern North Carolina and Southeast Texas, as well as the financial risks posed by flooding to households and communities located in coastal plain watersheds. Dr. Sebastian is currently engaged in projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Texas General Land Office and the State of North Carolina.

Dr. Sebastian serves as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Scientific Committees on Adaptation to a Changing Climate (CACC) Task Committee on Hydroclimatology and Engineering Adaptation (HYDEA) and Coastal Engineering Sciences, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Delta Urbanism. In 2020, she was selected as a Fellow by the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Enabling Program to support early career scientists researching natural hazards and disasters.

Prior to joining UNC, spent two years as an Associate Research Scientist at Texas A&M University at Galveston where she served on the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas after Hurricane Harvey and helped to establish the Institute for Texas Disaster Resilience. She also spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Hydraulic Engineering at Delft University of Technology where she worked on the EU Horizon2020 Project Bridging the Gap in Innovations in Disaster Resilience (BRIGAID).

Dr. Sebastian holds a Ph.D. and B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Rice University and is a former Netherlands-America Foundation (NAF)/Fulbright Fellow in Flood Management.