Hurricane Mitch Impact Analysis

I was one of 8 students to participate in an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program with the Earth Institute at Columbia University while in undergrad. During my time with them, I worked under two of their department’s climate scientists, Dr. Susana Adamo and Dr. Alex de Sherbinin, on a preliminary analysis of the anthropological effects of Hurricane Mitch on Honduras.

I identified the importance of the study due to the increased rates of natural disasters due to anthropogenic climate change. I amassed net migration census data from the 1988 to 2013 Honduras census to find correlations in migration trends and create a “directly affected” index to display the toll of the hurricane on a subnational level in the country using QGIS and ArcGIS Pro.

These variables were then combined with relevant poverty indexes to create a correlation coefficient table with the intent of finding interrelations between variables. I later went on to present my findings at the annual SEDAAG meeting to a panel of judges where I received the award of Best Undergraduate Poster.

Maps were made in QGIS. Poster was made in Microsoft PowerPoint.