Center for Urban and Regional Planning research
Immersive Virtual Reality of Weather Events to Communicate Climate Change Risks
Project Team
Principal Investigator:
Wei Zhai, PhD, Associate Professor, Urban and Regional Planning
Researchers:
Haoming Qin, Graduate Research Assistant
Marcio Giacomoni, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management
Project Sponsor:
UTSA VPREDKE Seed Grant, Natural Hazards Center
Project Description
This research leverages recent advances in Virtual Reality, where there is a growing literature showing that individuals internalize well-designed virtual experiences as if they were real. The research team will run a lab-in-the-field experiment with random assignment of a treatment, which will consist of an Immersive Virtual Environment simulation of a future extreme weather event in Galveston, TX that is a clear manifestation of climate change. Using randomization as an identification strategy, this approach isolates the treatment effect within the controlled environment of a social science laboratory setting. This project expects that experiencing an extreme weather event will enhance the public awareness of climate change.
Collaborating Research Lab:
