Thomas Wahl of UCF analyzed storm surge trends over the past 60 years to develop a new method that determines where extreme weather events are more likely to occur. The method will provide cities with important information for the creation of flood-protection resources.

“We don’t want to over design and waste money to build things bigger than they need to be,” said Wahl. “We don’t want to build things too small to just find out 20 years down the road that we underestimated the design and now we need to pay more money to further adapt our infrastructure.”

• Thomas Wahl