Priscila B Ramalho Alves
Priscila is the Lab Manager and Post-doctoral Associate of the Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice (SIRJ) Lab of the University of Maryland (UMD). She holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and a MSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG) in Brazil.
Priscila is a civil engineer with experience in water resources and environmental engineering. Her professional experience combines the development of city sanitation plans, evaluation of drainage solutions, engineering designs, water resources and GIS modelling, and the development of participatory approaches for engaging with stakeholders. She also has experience in teaching in Brazil and the UK.
Priscila grew up in Brazil, but also lived in the US and the UK during her professional career. The cultural diversity of these experiences provided her a variety of perspectives of how the disaster risk is rooted in the vulnerabilities and political-institutional conditions of the areas. Her main research interests are in combination of spatial tools with participatory approaches for disaster risk reduction, especially for the reduction of water-related hazards, such as floods and water shortage. Her previous publications include the analysis of mitigation strategies for flood risk reduction, along with the understanding of risk perception and coping capacity of residents, social and institutional vulnerabilities, and the mapping of vulnerable areas for flood and water shortage risk disasters.
Areas of expertise:
- Spatial analysis (GIS – Geographic Information Systems)
- Stakeholders’ engagement and participatory approaches
- Mapping flooding, water shortage and vulnerability-prone areas
- Investigating people’s perception and behaviours towards risk
- Strategies for disaster risk reduction
- Multiple benefits of sustainable solutions such as NBS, SUDS, LID, BGI, GI