Source: AgriLife Today
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, attention has once again shifted to what can be done to make towns and cities along the Texas coastline and further inland more durable and flood-ready. And Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service personnel have already been helping in that effort.
“One of our main goals is to help elected and appointed city officials as well as planners and developers better understand how their decisions will affect people, resources, infrastructure and the environment,” said Dr. John Jacob of Houston, AgriLife Extension specialist and director of the Texas Coastal Watershed Program of Texas A&M University.
To assist coastal and other communities with information needed to make important development decisions, Jacob and AgriLife Extension specialist Steven Mikulencak have been taking elected and appointed officials to “CHARM school” by providing workshops on the Community Health and Resource Management, or CHARM, platform.
The CHARM platform allows for the overlay and integration of demographic, geographic and economic information over a 2.5-acre grid for that community. It is a user‐friendly mapping tool that allows officials and members of the public to create land use and planning scenarios incorporating a variety of factors and receive immediate feedback.
For more information on CHARM, go to http://www.communitycharm.org/
View More Hurricane Harvey Disaster Recovery Resources
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