Wesley Highfield, Ph.D.

Professor and Deputy Director of IDRT with deep expertise in Natural Hazard Management

Boulder, Colorado, United States of America

Research Expertise

natural hazards
hazard mitigation
spatial analysis
flood risk
flood risk reduction

About

Dr. Highfield ’s research focuses on flood and hurricane impacts, mitigation and recovery at local, state and federal levels. He has received $10.8 million in external research funding from state and federal sources. He is the Deputy Director of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas and a Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Sciences at Texas A&M. During his tenure at Texas A&M, he has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and 10 books and book chapters. Dr. Highfield’s research has had measurable impacts on flood mitigation policy at state and federal levels. He has chaired four doctoral committee and over 30 master’s committees and has also served as the departmental master’s degree coordinator for six years and the Ph.D. program coordinator for four years.

Legacy Map

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Publications

Hurricane risk perceptions among Florida's single family homeowners
Landscape and Urban Planning
2005
Does Planning Work?: Testing the Implementation of Local Environmental Planning in Florida
Journal of the American Planning Association
2005
Inequities in Long-Term Housing Recovery After Disasters
Journal of the American Planning Association
2014
Mapping social vulnerability to enhance housing and neighborhood resilience
Housing Policy Debate
2012
Examining Localized Patterns of Air Quality Perception in Texas: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis
Risk Analysis
2004
The Rising Costs of Floods: Examining the Impact of Planning and Development Decisions on Property Damage in Florida
Journal of the American Planning Association
2007
Identifying the impact of the built environment on flood damage in Texas
Disasters
2007
Does Location Matter?
Environment and Behavior
2004
Policy Learning for Flood Mitigation: A Longitudinal Assessment of the Community Rating System in Florida
Risk Analysis
2009
Mitigation Planning
Journal of Planning Education and Research
2014
The Contribution of Mangrove Expansion to Salt Marsh Loss on the Texas Gulf Coast
PLOS ONE
2015
Measuring the Adoption of Local Sprawl
Journal of Planning Education and Research
2006
Open space protection and flood mitigation: A national study
Land Use Policy
2013
Measuring the collective planning capabilities of local jurisdictions to manage ecological systems in southern Florida
Landscape and Urban Planning
2004
Examining the 100‐Year Floodplain as a Metric of Risk, Loss, and Household Adjustment
Risk Analysis
2012
Rising Waters
Unknown Venue
2011
Examining the relationship between wetland alteration and watershed flooding in Texas and Florida
Natural Hazards
2006
Planning at the Urban Fringe: An Examination of the Factors Influencing Nonconforming Development Patterns in Southern Florida
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design
2006
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Local Mitigation Activities in Reducing Flood Losses
Natural Hazards Review
2013
Examining the Influence of Development Patterns on Flood Damages along the Gulf of Mexico
Journal of Planning Education and Research
2011
Modeling national flood insurance policy holding at the county scale in Florida, 1999–2005
Ecological Economics
2009
Understanding the motivations of coastal residents to voluntarily purchase federal flood insurance
Journal of Risk Research
2016
Exploring the mosaic of perceptions for water quality across watersheds in San Antonio, Texas
Landscape and Urban Planning
2005
Evaluating the effects of open space configurations in reducing flood damage along the Gulf of Mexico coast
Landscape and Urban Planning
2017
Conflict on the Coast: Using Geographic Information Systems to Map Potential Environmental Disputes in Matagorda Bay, Texas
Environmental Management
2004
Determining the effects of the FEMA Community Rating System program on flood losses in the United States
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
2017
A spatial-temporal analysis of section 404 wetland permitting in Texas and Florida: Thirteen years of impact along the coast
Wetlands
2008
Quantification of continuous flood hazard using random forest classification and flood insurance claims at large spatial scales: a pilot study in southeast Texas
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
2021
Measuring the impact of mitigation activities on flood loss reduction at the parcel level: the case of the clear creek watershed on the upper Texas coast
Natural Hazards
2014
The Effects of Coastal Dune Volume and Vegetation on Storm-Induced Property Damage: Analysis from Hurricane Ike
Journal of Coastal Research
2018
Economic impacts of storm surge and the cost-benefit analysis of a coastal spine as the surge mitigation strategy in Houston-Galveston area in the USA
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change
2018
An Analysis of the Effects of Land Use and Land Cover on Flood Losses along the Gulf of Mexico Coast from 1999 to 2009
JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association
2015
Non-linear incentives, plan design, and flood mitigation: the case of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's community rating system
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
2010
Price of Permits: Measuring the Economic Impacts of Wetland Development on Flood Damages in Florida
Natural Hazards Review
2006
Strategic property buyouts to enhance flood resilience: a multi-criteria spatial approach for incorporating ecological values into the selection process
Environmental Hazards
2020
Household adjustment to flood risk: a survey of coastal residents in Texas and Florida, United States
Disasters
2016
Evaluating Ecosystem Management Capabilities at the Local Level in Florida: Identifying Policy Gaps Using Geographic Information Systems
Environmental Management
2003
Hurricane Recovery and Ecological Resilience: Measuring the Impacts of Wetland Alteration Post Hurricane Ike on the Upper TX Coast
Environmental Management
2017
The effects of estuarine wetlands on flood losses associated with storm surge
Ocean & Coastal Management
2018
Correlates of flood hazard adjustment adoption in four coastal communities
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
2022
Estimating flood extent during Hurricane Harvey using maximum entropy to build a hazard distribution model
Journal of Flood Risk Management
2019
Buy them out before they are built: evaluating the proactive acquisition of vacant land in flood-prone areas
Environmental Conservation
2021
Uncertainty in Flood Mitigation Practices: Assessing the Economic Benefits of Property Acquisition and Elevation in Flood-Prone Communities
Sustainability
2020
Assessment of the growing threat of urban flooding: a case study of a national survey
Urban Water Journal
2021
Estimating Residential Property Loss Reduction from a Proposed Coastal Barrier System in the Houston-Galveston Region
Natural Hazards Review
2018
Predictive modelling of mesophotic habitats in the north‐western Gulf of Mexico
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
2020
Section 404 Permitting in Coastal Texas: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship Between Peak Streamflow and Wetland Alteration
Environmental Management
2012
Economic impacts of storm surge events: examining state and national ripple effects
Climatic Change
2021
Deriving First Floor Elevations within Residential Communities Located in Galveston Using UAS Based Data
Drones
2022
Examining the relationship between development patterns and total phosphorus in the Galveston Bay Estuary
Environmental Science & Policy
2018
Leveraging Machine Learning and Twitter Data to Identify High Hazard Areas during Hurricane Harvey
Unknown Venue
2019
Mapping cross-scale economic impacts of storm surge events: considerations for design and user testing
Journal of Maps
2021
Valuing floodplain protection and avoidance in a coastal watershed
Disasters
2019
Knowledge-Informed Data-Driven Modeling of Coupled Human-Built–Natural Systems: The Case of Hurricane-Induced Debris
Natural Hazards Review
2023
Recovery Versus Protection-Based Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction
The Routledge Handbook of Urban Disaster Resilience
2019
Methods Evaluating the Economic Effects of Coastal Dunes in Reducing Storm-Induced Property Damage: Hurricane Ike and Texas Coast Case Study
Coastal Structures and Solutions to Coastal Disasters 2015
2017
Understanding the impacts of the built environment on flood loss
Coastal Flood Risk Reduction
2022
The role of insurance in facilitating economic recovery from floods
Coastal Flood Risk Reduction
2022
Benefit-cost analysis of flood-mitigated residential buildings in Louisiana
Housing and Society
2020
Effects of Climate Change and Urbanization on Bridge Flood Vulnerability: A Regional Assessment for Harris County, Texas
Natural Hazards Review
2023
Inequities in long-term housing recovery after disasters
The Affordable Housing Reader
2022
Wetlands as an ecological function for flood reduction
Coastal Flood Risk Reduction
2022
Quantification of Continuous Flood Hazard using Random Forrest Classification and Flood Insurance Claims at Large Spatial Scales: A Pilot Study in Southeast Texas
Unknown Venue
2020
Characteristics of Hurricane Ike During Its Passage over Houston, Texas
Advances in Hurricane Research - Modelling, Meteorology, Preparedness and Impacts
2012

Education

Texas A&M University

Ph.D., Urban and Regional Science / May, 2008

College Station, Texas, United States of America

Texas A&M University

Masters, Urban Planning / May, 2004

College Station, Texas, United States of America

Texas A&M University

B.S., Renewable Natural Resources / May, 2001

College Station, Texas, United States of America

Experience

Texas A&M University

Professor / September, 2022 — Present

Deputy Director, Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas / January, 2021 — Present

Associate Professor / August, 2016 — September, 2022

Assistant Professor / September, 2011 — August, 2016

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