Members of OU's civil engineering and meteorology departments are addressing the impacts of severe weather on society at a symposium in Tulsa.

The National Symposium on Mitigating Severe Weather Impacts began over the weekend with a series of guest speakers. Starting today, the symposium will feature interactive sessions to produce discussion about "Design for Disaster Reduction," the event's theme.

Several OU groups are sponsors of the event, including the Oklahoma Weather Center, the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, the College of Engineering and the College of Geosciences.The event, being held at the Tulsa Convention Center, will continue through Wednesday.

Baxter Vieux, civil engineering professor and director of OU's International Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Research, organized the event and is serving as symposium chair. He said the symposium would focus on determining the best methods to mitigate disasters and disseminate information and warnings.

"We want to reach a broader part of society," Vieux said. "By bridging engineering with meteorology, I think we're getting a good response."

During the week, the symposium will feature four interactive sessions to address the event's theme. Today's sessions will focus on engineering for severe weather resistant structures and managing risk of extreme temperatures and weather. Tuesday's sessions will focus on mitigating flood impacts with warning systems and predictions and severe weather legislation and education.

Vieux said he hopes the symposium will produce two results: an action agenda of new ideas in each area and an industrial consortium interested in sponsoring research into those ideas.

J.J. Gourley, an environmental science graduate student, said the symposium offers a unique interaction between engineers and managers. Improved communication could lead to the prevention of disasters related to extreme precipitation, for example, because technology would allow managers to know when to release water from dams.

Several of the symposium's sponsors hosted a similar event last year to examine the effects of the May 3, 1999, tornadoes.Gourley attended that conference and said the broader focus of this year's event will be its appeal to more people.

"It's a good outlet for scientists, engineers and decision makers," Gourley said."It's a merging of communities, and it's good to bring them together."


To learn more about the School of Meteorology, visit http://weather.ou.edu/~som/.
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