Research

Areas of Research

Powell Lawson Consulting conducts hazards and weather research, focused in the areas of:

• drought, wildfires, and hurricanes,

• organizational learning in hazard mitigation,

• risk communication,

• the Internet and mobile Internet as hazards mitigation tools, and

• renewable energy.

research
Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Pearlington, Mississippi home to which this dock attached.

Selected Research Publications

The following links highlight recent research conducted by Powell Lawson Consulting and its clients and/or research partners. Please contact us to learn more.

• Lawson, Carlie. 2022. “Infrastructure, Storms and Social Effects: The Effects of Extreme Weather on an Unfinished Subdivision in Extreme Rural Oklahoma.” 1st WWRP/SERA “Weather and Society” Conference 2022.

• CONVERGE Compound Hazards and Cascading Disasters Working Group. 2020. “Extreme Weather Events in a Time of Pandemic.” CONVERGE.

• Kelman, Ilan and Lawson, Carlie L. 2008. “Extreme event warning systems as social processes.”

• Lawson, Carlie L. and I. Kelman. 2008. “Slow Migration Due to Environmental Contamination: The Making of an Oklahoma Ghost Town.”

• Lawson, Carlie L., Baze, Lucas, Meo, Mark. 2007. “Emerging Energy Technology Survey: Oklahoma State Agency Interests.” University of Oklahoma.

• Lawson, Carlie L. 2007. “The Potential of Internet Technologies in Hazards Mitigation: The Oklahoma Fire Danger Model as an Online Nowcast/Forecast Tool.”

• Lawson, Carlie, L., Meo, Mark. 2006. “The Fire Danger Model and the Mesonet – the Underutilized Benefit of IT Software in Oklahoma’s Drought Planning and Management.”

• Lawson, Carlie, L., Jabbar, Afsaneh. 2006. “The Effects of Climate Change on Water Resources Planning: The City of Shawnee Perspective”.

• Jabbar, Afsaneh, Lawson, Carlie, L. 2006. “Planning for Drought in a Changing Climate: Directions in Planning and Management Techniques.”

Academic Tomes

High and dry: institutional impediments to effective drought management and relief in the 1995-96 and 1998 Oklahoma droughts

by Carlie Lawson

My exceedingly nerdy thesis which my co-chairs kindly told me was more in-depth than most dissertations they had read. My co-chairs were Dr. Mark Meo and Dr. Richard Marshment, so their not so joking joke meant a lot. You can get this from a few libraries including OU’s Bizzell, The Architecture Library and OU’s Law Library. This tome provides a historical account of the 1996, 1997 and 1998 droughts and wildfire outbreaks and the flood interspersed between two of the droughts and an analysis of the mitigation techniques used at the federal, state and local levels. It also provides recommendations for mitigation improvements. This is really not light reading and not for the faint of heart. If you want to learn about the OK Mesonet, the HayNet or J.D. Carlson’s fire danger model, this is the book for you! Interlibrary loan is your friend.

Emerging Energy Technology Survey: Oklahoma State Agency Interests

by Carlie Lawson

In September 2006, a survey questionnaire was mailed to all state agencies, boards, and commissions in the state of Oklahoma to ascertain their level of interest in various emerging energy technologies that might be of value to the state. This book/ e-book summarizes the survey results and provides analysis and context within the renewable energies industry.