Transformative Disaster Risk Governance is a multidisciplinary project bringing together York University experts in disaster and emergency management, public health, governance, environmental studies, natural science, mathematics, and engineering to work on all aspects of disaster and emergency management. When these disciplines come together to anticipate risks and innovate around them, it can create a more resilient and equitable state of human well-being.
To learn more about this project and, specifically, the role of engineering within it, attend the Transformative Disaster Risk Governance Webinar Series: The Role of Engineering in Disaster Risk Management, which takes place online on Friday, June 18, from 9:30 to 10:40 a.m. All are welcome to attend, but registration is required.
To register, visit yorku.ca/tdrg/event/transformative-disaster-risk-governance-webinar-series-how-engineering-can-help-disaster-risk-governance.
The webinar will include an introduction by Usman T. Khan, assistant professor and graduate program director of Civil Engineering at York, followed by three guest speakers, a Q-and-A session, a panel discussion and Khan’s closing remarks.
Guest speakers
Florence Mainguenaud is a PhD student at Aix-Marseille University and York University. Her research focuses on the spatialized probabilistic study of flood risk assessment in areas protected by dikes. Mainguenaud is a civil engineer from the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rennes in France. For her undergraduate project, she explored the possibility of developing a probabilistic estimate of ground settlement due to floating foundations at Okayama University in Japan. She has won two student contests – from CIMbéton in 2017 and from Saint-Gobain in 2018.
Michael De Santi is an MASc candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering at York and a member of the Safe Water Optimization Tool (SWOT) team at York’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. The SWOT project is an open-source online tool that uses routine water quality data to improve water safety at refugee and internally displaced person settlements. De Santi’s research focuses on artificial neural network and data-driven modelling tools for the SWOT project. He is an engineer in training with a BASc in civil engineering from the University of Toronto. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, he worked for two years with Jacobs Engineering Group as a water design specialist on the Toronto Basement Flooding Protection Program.
Everett Snieder is a second-year PhD candidate at York. His research is centred around developing machine learning-based flood forecasting models, under the supervision Professor Khan. Snieder holds a master’s and an undergraduate degree from York and the University of Guelph, respectively. He has spent two years working in municipal infrastructure and environmental consulting. He has received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarship and an Enbridge Graduate Scholarship.
Event organizer and session Chair
Usman Khan’s research interests lie in water resources engineering, focusing on urban hydrology, including flood risk assessment, sustainable water resource management and the impacts of climate change on these systems. He specializes in developing novel machine learning and artificial intelligence methods for various engineering applications. The role of civil engineering in creating vibrant, livable and sustainable cities is a strong motivator for Khan. He is committed to using his professional practice to meet the challenges that face the urban environment.
For more information about the webinar, contact Mahnaz Alavinejad at mahnazal@yorku.ca.