Dr. Kevin Ash
Assistant Professor
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4231-2112
352-294-6956
Affiliate Member:
Florida Climate Institute
Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience
School of Natural Resources & Environment
Focus Areas
- Focus Area 1: Earth System Science
- Focus Area 5: Catastrophes, Conservation, and Conflict
- Focus Area 6: Sustainability & Global Environmental Change
Research Statement:
I am a human-environment geographer with expertise in environmental hazards topics such as vulnerability, resilience, risk communication and perception, evacuation, and disaster loss data. My primary analysis tools are geospatial and statistical modeling, though I also have training and experience with qualitative methods. Currently, my research is primarily focused on social vulnerability, risk communication, risk perception, decision-making, and resilience in the context of weather and climate hazards.
Recent Courses
- GIS 4324/6325 GIS Analysis of Hazard Vulnerability
- GEO 4938/6938 Weather, Climate, & Society
- GEO 2006 Natural Hazards Geography
- GEO 3430 Population Geography
Recent Funded Projects
- Early Career Faculty Innovators Program, NCAR/UCAR (sponsor), NSF (prime sponsor). Role: PI; 2021-2013, Total award: $401,148, Title: A Flexible Geospatial Awareness Framework for Weather Warning Communication and Decision Support.
- NOAA. Role: PI; 2020-21, Total award: $23,523; Title: Tornado Sheltering Perceptions and Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- NOAA VORTEX-SE. Role: UF PI with lead PI Stephen Strader (Villanova Univ.); 2017-2020, Total Award: $245,769; UF Portion: $19,357, Title: Tornadoes and Mobile Homes: An Inter-science Approach to Reducing Vulnerabilities and Improving Capacities for the Southeast’s Most Susceptible Population.
Recent Publications
Clarke, K., K. Ash, E.S. Coker, T. Sabo-Attwood, and E. Bainomugisha, A Social Vulnerability Index for Air Pollution and its Spatially Varying Relationship to PM2.5 in Uganda, Atmosphere, 13, 1169.
Demuth, J.L, J. Vickery, H. Lazrus, J. Henderson, R.E. Morss, and K.D. Ash, 2022. Rethinking Warning Compliance and Complacency by Examining how People Manage Risk and Vulnerability during Real-world Tornado Threats, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(6): E1553-E1572.
Ash, K.D., M.J. Egnoto, S.M. Strader, W.S. Ashley, D.B. Roueche, K.E. Klockow-McClain, D. Caplen, and M. Dickerson, 2020. Structural Forces: Perception and Vulnerability Factors for Tornado Sheltering Within Mobile and Manufactured Housing in Alabama and Mississippi, Weather, Climate, and Society, 12(3): 453-472.
Strader, S.,K. Ash, E. Wagner, and C. Sherrod, 2019. Mobile Home Resident Evacuation Vulnerability and Emergency Medical Service Access during Tornado Events in the Southeast United States, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 38: 101210.
Saunders, M.E., K.D. Ash, and J.M. Collins, 2018. Usefulness of the United States National Weather Service Radar Display as Rated by Website Users, Weather, Climate, and Society, 10(4): 673-691.
Schumann III, R.L., K.D. Ash, and G.C. Bowser, 2018. Tornado Warning Perception and Response: Integrating the Roles of Visual Design, Demographics, and Hazard Experience, Risk Analysis, 38(2): 311-332.
Ash, K.D., 2017. A Qualitative Study of Mobile Home Resident Perspectives on Tornadoes and Tornado Protective Actions in South Carolina, USA, GeoJournal, 82(3): 533-552.
Educational Background
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Advanced Study Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 2017-2018
- Postdoctoral Scholar, School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, 2015-2017
- PhD in Geography, University of South Carolina, 2015
- M.S. in Geography, University of Florida, 2010
- B.S. in Geography, University of Oklahoma, 2004
Current Graduate Students
Doctoral
Master’s