The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is making significant strides in the field of disaster risk reduction, with its various research centers and programs actively engaged in developing cutting-edge solutions and offering essential support to bolster community resilience against natural hazards. These initiatives encompass a wide range of activities, from advanced weather forecasting to practical community-level preparedness and mitigation strategies.
The Chenab Times has learned that NJIT’s commitment to disaster resilience is multifaceted, involving interdisciplinary research and direct engagement with communities facing increasing environmental risks.
NJIT’s Center for Natural Resources (CNR) plays a pivotal role in this endeavor. Established to foster practical approaches for environmental and energy resource utilization, the CNR specializes in the assessment and mitigation of major hazards, remediation studies of pollution, and the evaluation of natural resources for energy production. Their researchers employ a combination of field measurements, computational models, and advanced sensor networks to study phenomena ranging from the microscopic to the landscape scale. The CNR is internationally recognized for its long-term studies of significant disasters, including the Exxon Valdez and Gulf of Mexico oil spills, and Hurricane Sandy, with its publications appearing in prestigious journals like Nature Geoscience and Environmental Science & Technology. In 2022, the center’s director, Michel Boufadel, was honored for his expertise in environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology.
Complementing the CNR’s work is NJIT’s Center for Resilient Design. This center has evolved into a significant research, technical assistance, and training institution focused on enhancing the resilience of buildings and communities against natural disasters and other stresses. Building upon lessons learned from events in New Jersey, the center aims to inform and support disaster-resilience initiatives not only within the state but also in other jurisdictions across the United States and internationally. Its founding mission was to aid New Jersey communities in recovering from Hurricane Sandy, and it has since expanded its scope to broader resilience planning.
Further advancing the university’s DRR capabilities, NJIT engineering professor Gevork Marras is developing innovative software that leverages artificial intelligence and quantum computing to improve the accuracy and speed of extreme weather forecasting, including hurricanes and tsunamis. This project, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, seeks to discover new patterns in weather data, potentially saving lives and protecting property. The Jexpresso software tools developed through this research are intended to be open-sourced.
NJIT’s commitment to community resilience is also evident in its Technical Assistance for Resiliency Program (TARP), which operates under the Center for Community Systems. TARP receives FEMA funding to provide technical assistance to New Jersey communities, particularly those with limited resources, to help them develop hazard mitigation projects and apply for FEMA grants. This program is crucial for helping vulnerable communities build capacity and implement resilience strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program, supported by FEMA and the NJ Office of Emergency Management, is a key framework for these efforts, shifting focus from reactive disaster spending to proactive investment in resilience.
Researchers at NJIT are also quantifying the resilience of existing infrastructures and developing risk-based strategies for upgrades. This includes the development of a Community Intrinsic Resilience Index (CIRI) by Michel Boufadel and collaborators, which helps cities and regions prioritize investments in infrastructure to reduce the potential impacts of natural disasters. The CIRI assesses resilience across key sectors like transportation, energy, and healthcare. Additionally, NJIT is exploring novel technologies, such as self-assembling robots for rapid rescue operations in disaster areas, to minimize risks to responders and expedite recovery.
The university is also integrating sustainability into its engineering curriculum. A new seminar series, supported by a grant from Engineering for One Planet, encourages students to consider sustainability-based solutions for civil infrastructure and environmental systems. This initiative, along with newly introduced sustainability modules and a minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, reflects NJIT’s holistic approach to addressing environmental and natural disasters.
NJIT’s work also extends to tackling flooding through nature-based solutions and fostering public-private partnerships. The Center for Natural Resources recently organized a Flood Resilience Workshop, bringing together experts from government, academia, and industry to share insights and spotlight actionable flood mitigation strategies for New Jersey municipalities. This collaborative approach emphasizes the importance of data sharing, real-time modeling, and statutory changes to better respond to flood emergencies.
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