Walter Gillis Peacock
Dr. Peacock is a professor of urban planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and the Sustainable Coastal Margins Program. He also serves as director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. His research interests include urban planning, sustainable community development, natural hazard, hazard mitigation, long-term recovery, and quantitative methods.
Dr. Peacock has written or co-authored two books and a host of articles, including Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disaster (Routledge, 1997); Living Conditions, Disasters and Development: An Approach to Cross-Cultural Comparisons (University of Georgia Press, 1993 with new paperback edition, 2008); "Social Vulnerability and the Natural and Built Environment: A Model of Flood Casualties in Texas," Disasters (2008); "Social Science Research Needs for the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System," Natural Hazards Review (2007); "Organizational Communication and Decision Making for Hurricane Emergencies," Natural Hazards Review (2007); and "Hurricane Risk Perceptions among Florida's Single Family Homeowners," Landscape and Urban Planning (2005).
He has served as principal or co-principal investigator on several research projects, such as "Developing a Coastal Communities Planning Atlas as an Educational Tool for Decision Makers and Local Residents," for the Texas Sea Grant College Program; a study on the "Socio-Economic Impacts of Earthquakes," funded by the Mid-American Earthquake Center and the National Science Foundation; and "Social Vulnerability Mapping and GIS in Tsunami Impact Analysis," funded by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Peacock received his B.A. in sociology from Columbus College (1978), and his M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1986) in sociology from the University of Georgia.