Research ProfessorOld Dominion University
1030 University Blvd.
Suffolk, Virginia 23435
Email: jbehr@odu.edu
Phone: 757-927-9735
Visit Joshua's Research Website
Research Disciplines:
- Community Planning
- Modeling and Simulation
- Political Science/Policy/Public Administration
- Social Science
Vulnerable populations, medically fragile populations, housing recovery, building codes, catastrophic severe weather events, flooding, recurrent flooding, nuisance flooding, resilience, mitigation, adaptation, coastal planning
View Joshua's CVBiographical Sketch
Joshua G. Behr PhD is Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University. Dr. Behr received his training at the University of New Orleans specializing in urban and minority politics. Dr. Behr has conducted studies, modeled, and published insights related to community resilience, catastrophic events, evacuation behavior, recurrent flooding, and the disposition of medically fragile and vulnerable populations in the post-event recovery process. Much of this involves connecting both modeling and data from several systems to produce actionable, policy-relevant knowledge and forecasts. This includes leveraging natural systems data to model storms and flooding, built environment data to characterize the physical structures in our communities, and social-behavioral data related to population perceptions and behavioral responses. These are integrated by Dr. Behr to forecast storm damage, displaced populations, recovery times, wellbeing of populations, and cost pressure on health systems. Currently, he is performing analyses for the return on investment relating to resilient-promoting building codes and planning policies. His work is of much interest to housing and health officials, emergency planners, city planners, and homeland security officials. His research philosophy is echoed in his statement, “Connecting Natural System data, Build Environment data, and Social-Behavioral data is essential … it all comes down to people and actionable information … wellbeing, pain, suffering, and longevity of people should be often considered in the modeling enterprise.”
Education
- PhD University of New Orleans