The Southeast Texas region contains multiple ports, including one of the world’s largest ports (Port of Houston) and is home to the largest petrochemical complex in the U.S. The gulf coast region in the U.S has experienced frequent disaster events, including major hurricanes and tropical storms, power grid issues, and environmental disasters such Deepwater Horizon oil spill over the last decade. More specifically, the southeast Texas region experienced multiple weather-related disasters over the last five years (Hurricane Harvey -2017, Tropical Storm Imelda - 2019, Hurricane Laura - 2020, Tropical Storm Beta - 2020, Hurricane Nicholas - 2021). These multi-disaster events often come with an enormous economic cost in addition to the short and long-term environmental and societal impacts. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management, it is estimated that Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion in damage. Therefore, building a regional center for resilience in the Southeast Texas region needs to incorporate the interdependencies and the interdisciplinary nature of the communities and industries. Learning from the current resilience-focused centers, Lamar University established a state-funded Resilience center that promotes multidisciplinary collaborations and an inter-professional approach to resilience research. In this study, we present the process of building a resilience center from the ground up at a public university. These issues of resilience in the region are discussed as well as the future steps for the Center’s continued growth and development for the study of resilience.
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