Florida State University doctoral student Maryam Pakdehi (left) and Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, a professor and researcher at the joint college and Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center, analyzed data to identify the health impact from hurricanes and water damage on residences. (Scott Holstein/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering)
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, a groundbreaking FAMU-FSU College of Engineering research project funded by National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) dives deep into the indirect impacts of flooding on residential buildings, indoor air quality and human respiratory health.
Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, a researcher at the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is spearheading the study in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of hydrologic engineers and public health scientists. The analysis will fill a critical gap in understanding how floods drive mold growth in houses and affect the residents with respiratory conditions like asthma.
“We want to identify how flood characteristics, building attributes and human behavior, lead to higher levels of mold growth after an event,” Ahmadisharaf said. “We also want to understand how living in flooded homes influences asthma symptoms among residents.”
“We want to identify how flood characteristics, building attributes and human behavior, lead to higher levels of mold growth after an event,” Ahmadisharaf said. “We also want to understand how living in flooded homes influences asthma symptoms among residents.”
Catastrophic Damage Leads to Research Boon
When Hurricanes Ida and Ian hit the U.S., the storms exposed the vulnerability of urban and residential infrastructures to severe weather events. Flooding affected a wide range of local communities and presented a rare opportunity for researchers to collect critical data on how the buildings and HVAC systems, human behaviors and the community responded to the event.
The researchers quickly went to work employing detailed questionnaires, home inspections, machine learning algorithms and existing datasets. They gathered and generated information on flooding, respiratory health, and the condition of the built environment. The idea was to establish a unified empirical database.
The next step was to apply machine learning algorithms to identify key factors affecting mold growth and asthma in the affected buildings. Maryam Pakdehi, a civil and environmental engineering doctoral student, developed a machine learning model that assisted in identifying these factors and predicting the impacts of flood events.
“We want to create mold growth and asthma risk models and enhance disaster management strategies across population centers vulnerable to flooding,” Ahmadisharaf explained.
More Damage Than Meets the Eye
The team examined submerged and water-damaged wooden single-family houses in severely affected areas, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the metropolitan areas of New York City, South Florida and Philadelphia and uncovered specific factors contributing to indoor mold proliferation and community asthma symptoms.
Some key findings showed that preexisting human respiratory diseases and indoor mold spores were influential features related to allergy and asthma symptoms and mold growth. Several factors, like flood depth and roof age affected mold growth. Asthma and mold growth are unique in the geographic region they studied.
“We identified key variables that affect mold growth and asthma in residential buildings,” Ahmadisharaf said. “The research is critical due to the growing number of flood events and prevalence of asthma in many locations.”
“We identified key variables that affect mold growth and asthma in residential buildings,” Ahmadisharaf said. “The research is critical due to the growing number of flood events and prevalence of asthma in many locations.”
The research outcome promises to be far-reaching, offering valuable insights that can inform building design, occupational health science and public health policy. The project aims to educate families about the impacts of food events on indoor air pollution (mold growth) and asthma in the affected buildings and provides a foundation for the development of timely strategies for disaster management in population centers.
Several of the participants in the study including Florida and the Louisiana Departments of Health collaborated in the project. Florida State University and joint college doctoral student Maryam Pakdehi alongside research associate Parham Azimi, associate professor Joseph Allen, research assistant Zahra Keshavarz and research intern Chris Caballero at Harvard School of Public Health were part of the study.
The research is funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation through Florida State University in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health.
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