The application closing date for this Research Opportunity is January 4, 2008.

36. Understanding vulnerability and risk of communities to natural hazards

Reducing potential losses from natural hazards to communities is one of the critical issues of the 21st century. To reduce potential losses, public and private decision makers must understand the hazards in their communities and also their unique vulnerabilities to these hazards. The USGS is helping local and state practitioners by augmenting its traditional expertise in natural hazards with improved capacity to assess vulnerability, defined here as the exposure, sensitivity, and resilience of a community. The USGS is also exploring the nature of risk, defined as the product of vulnerability and the probability of hazard. Our long-standing intellectual tradition of studying the relation between society and the natural environment, compliments USGS expertise at hazard assessment, offering a framework for an integrated physical, biological, and social understanding of hazards and the risks they pose. It also helps us understand how changes in environmental and ecological processes change a community’s sensitivity and risk to natural hazards.

The National Academy of Science has defined important research questions in the effort to understand risk and to minimize the loss of life and property from disasters, including:

• Who, and what, are vulnerable to the multiple environmental and human changes underway, and where?
• How are these changes and their consequences attenuated or amplified by different human and environmental conditions?
• What can be done to reduce vulnerability to change?
• How may more resilient and adaptive communities and societies be built?

This postdoctoral research opportunity will involve research to develop new and innovative ways to address these questions. As such, the research will be highly inter- and trans-disciplinary, involving the entire range of USGS earth and natural sciences. The incumbent will work with a wide range of spatial and in-situ data generated by the USGS, other agencies, and local communities to document hazard potential, the unique nature of the physical and social aspects of human settlements, and the interaction of these factors. An overarching goal is to develop improved understanding of risk that can help communities and individuals take actions necessary to sustain life, property, ecosystems, and the economy in the face of natural hazards. Geographic emphasis of the incumbent’s research will be in multi-disciplinary research areas ongoing within USGS (for example, Integrated Landscape Monitoring, Priority Ecosystems, Multi-hazard Risk Assessment). However, other geographies may be selected based on environmental gradients and/or availability of existing data.

Proposed Duty Station: Menlo Park, CA; Tucson or Flagstaff, AZ; Vancouver, WA; Denver or Fort Collins, CO; Rolla, MO; Anchorage, AK; Sioux Falls, SD; Reston, VA; Boston, MA; St. Petersburg, FL; or Annapolis, MD

Areas of Ph.D.: Geography, Geographic Information Systems, economics, sociology, landscape ecology, spatial ecology and modeling, environmental science, remote sensing

Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geographer, Research Physical Scientist, Research Ecologist, Research Economist, Research Biologist, Research Hydrologist, Research Geologist

(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.)

Research Advisor: Nate Wood, (360) 893-8951, nwood@usgs.gov

Human Resources Office contact: Kathy McDuffie, (703) 648-7408, kmcduffie@usgs.gov

Summary of Opportunities