Focus at Four: Texas A&M uses virtual reality for flood research
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Texas A&M University is working with virtual reality (VR) technology to research flood mitigation for Texas during natural disasters.
Professor Michelle Meyer, the Director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center; and Zhenhang Cai, a PhD student, joined First News at Four today to discuss their work.
Professor Meyer explained that their work hopes to help communities solve disaster-related problems.
“This could be to reduce flooding impacts, address building codes, determine where they should do mitigation, as well as address different recovery planning activities. So, after a disaster, unfortunately, when they’re trying to decide where to rebuild and how to rebuild in a more resilient manner, that’s where our research is focused is on,” Professor Meyer explained.
While being useful on its own, Cai said the VR portion of the research is also helpful to teach the younger generations about these issues.
“We build up like six scenarios in the Texas city, Beaumont. So, we try to visualize how the air pollutants looks like from, like, slow to until extreme, and also like the medium flood and, you know high-level flood based on our eye level,” shared Cai.
These scenarios put variables into a more tangible perspective for people in the communities they represent.
“It helps a lot with education” Professor Meyer added. “Sometimes you can’t imagine what the worst case scenario disaster is if you haven’t been through it yet. So, this way we can place you within your community. Once we have the data base set up and then you could be walking through the water as if you would reach 5 foot of flooding.”
