College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Eric Tate

I study connections between natural hazards and society, primarily through modeling of social vulnerability and risk. I'm particularly interested in vulnerability to floods, and my scholarly work falls into three main areas:
- Evaluating social equity in disaster mitigation and recovery spending
- Assessing indicators of vulnerability and risk
- Analyzing uncertainty and sensitivity of geospatial models
I currently serve on the Board of Directors for the Anthropocene Alliance and the Gulf Environmental Protection and Stewardship Program, on the Resilient America Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine, as co-chair of the National Academies study committee on spatial screening tools for environmental justice, and as a co-author of the Adaptation chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
Research minute: Eric Tate on disasters
Eric Tate is an Associate Professor of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences at the University of Iowa. Using models called social vulnerability indicators, he studies how natural hazards such as hurricanes and floods affect some populations more than others.
- Environmental Justice (GEOG 4770): relationships between environmental hazards & amenities, and marginalized groups & communities
- Hazards and Society (GEOG 3760): how societies plan for, experience, respond to, and recover from extreme natural hazards
- Water Resources (GEOG 2930): processes and practices underlying the management of freshwater resources
- Contemporary Environmental Issues (GEOG 1070): profiles today's leading environmental challenges, focusing on causes, consequences, and solutions
- Cristina Muñoz, Ph.D expected Summer 2023
- Asif Rahman, Ph.D expected Summer 2023
- Shelley Hoover, Ph.D. expected Spring 2026
Graduates:
- Federico Antolini, Ph.D (2022): "Geospatial Methods for Distributed Flood Attenuation on Riverine Catchments"
- Oronde Drakes, Ph.D (2021): "Local-scale social vulnerability to multiple hazards"
- Rebecca Kauten, Ph.D (2019): "Chloride and Corrosiveness: Trends, Indices, Scales of Measurement, and Agency Management Capacity to Address Freshwater Salinization."
- Md. Abu Sayeed Maroof, M.A. (2016): "Assessing the Influence of Parameters for Agricultural Loss Estimation due to Flood"
- Federico Antolini, M.A. (2015): "Geospatial modeling to assess location suitability in a detention system of small reservoirs"
- US Department of Housing & Urban Development. 2019-2023. PI for "Cost Effectiveness of CBDG-DR: Flood Mitigation and Vulnerable Populations." $850,000. With Co-PIs Aaron Strong, Carol Friedland, Melanie Gall, Chris Emrich, and Liz Hollingworth.
* Denotes a UI geography student
Drakes, O.*, Tate, E. (2022). "Social vulnerability in a multi-hazard context: a systematic review" Environmental Research Letters, 17: 033001.
Wilson, B, Tate, E., and Emrich, C.T. (2021). "Flood Recovery Outcomes and Disaster Assistance Barriers for Vulnerable Populations" Frontiers in Water, 3: 752307.
Tate, E. and Emrich C.T. (2021). "Assessing Social Equity in Disasters." Eos, 102.
Tate, E., Rahman, A.*, Emrich, CT, and Sampson C. (2021). "Flood exposure and social vulnerability in the United States." Natural Hazards, 106(1): 435-457.
Drakes, O.*, Tate, E., Rainey, J. and Brody S. (2021). "Social vulnerability and short-term disaster assistance in the United States." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 53: 102010
Antolini, F.*, Tate, E., Dalzell, B., Young, N., Johnson, K., and Hawthorne P. (2020). "Flood Risk Reduction from Agricultural Best Management Practices." Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 56(1): 161-179.
Emrich, C., Tate, E., Larson, S., and Zhou, Y. (2020). "Measuring Social Equity in Flood Recovery Funding." Environmental Hazards, 19(3): 228-250.
Rufat, S., Tate, E., Emrich, C.T., and Antolini, F.* (2019). "How Valid are Social Vulnerability Models?" Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 109(4): 1131-1153.
Tate, E., Decker, V. and Just, C. (2018). "Evaluating Collaborative Readiness for Interdisciplinary Flood Research." Risk Analysis, 41(7): 1187-1194.
Rufat, S., Tate, E., Burton, C.G., and Maroof, A.S.* (2015). "Social vulnerability to floods: Review of case studies and implications for measurement." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 14(4): 470-486.