Nathan J Wood, Ph.D.
Nathan Wood is a supervisory research geographer with the USGS Western Geographic Science Center.
He supervises the WGSC Hazard Vulnerability Team that specializes in societal-vulnerability science, geospatial modeling, and web mapping applications. He has conducted research and written extensively on community vulnerability to natural hazards, such as asset exposure, demographic sensitivity, and pedestrian evacuation modeling. He has done work related to tsunami threats in Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Alaska, American Samoa, and Guam; volcanic hazards in Washington and California; and coastal hazards in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. He also works with natural scientists to model and create national-scale hazard maps, including landslide, sinkhole, and Valley Fever susceptibility. He is a co-leader of a project characterizing multi-hazard risk for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is a USGS representative for the Coordinating Committee of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program.
Professional Experience
2014 – Current: Supervisory Research Geographer, USGS Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC)
2001 – 2014: Research Geographer, USGS WGSC
1999-2001: Project Manager, Extension Sea Grant, Oregon State University
1998-1999: Instructor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Geography, Oregon State University, 2002
M.S. Marine Science, University of South Florida, 1996
B.S. Geology, Duke University, 1993
Science and Products
Community Exposure to Future Coastal Hazards in U.S. North Carolina, reference year 2020
Community Exposure to Future Coastal Hazards for U.S. Washington, reference year 2020
Exposure of FY2020 Federal Real Property Profile Data to 100-year and 500-year Flood Hazard Zones for the years 2022 and 2052
Threat prioritization framework and input data for a multi-hazard risk analysis for the U.S. Department of the Interior
Closed depression density in karst regions of the conterminous United States: features and grid data
Community Exposure in California to Coastal Groundwater Hazards Enhanced by Climate Change, reference year 2020
Community Exposure in California to Coastal Flooding Hazards Enhanced by Climate Change, reference year 2010
Influence of demand and capacity in transportation simulations of short-notice, distant-tsunami evacuations
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for three California probabilistic tsunami hazard zones and four travel speeds (shapefiles) and impaired walk travel times for all zones by parcel land-use and flow depth class (tables)
California volcano locations, threat rank and hazard zones
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for two tsunami-inundation zones (2009 and probable maximum tsunami (PMT)) and four travel speeds (slow walk, fast walk, slow run, and fast run) for American Samoa
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for two tsunami-evacuation zones (standard and extreme) and three travel speeds (impaired, slow, and fast walk) for O'ahu, HI
Evaluating social vulnerability indicators: Criteria and their application to the Social Vulnerability Index
Dynamic flood modeling essential to assess the coastal impacts of climate change
Assessing hazards and risks at the Department of the Interior—A workshop report
California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The potential for damaging earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, and wildfires is widely recognized in California. The same cannot be said for volcanic eruptions, despite the fact that they occur in the state about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. At least ten eruptions have taken place in the past 1,000 years, and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable.The
Population vulnerability to tsunami hazards informed by previous and projected disasters: A case study of American Samoa
Science for a risky world—A U.S. Geological Survey plan for risk research and applications
Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast
Projected 21st century coastal flooding in the Southern California Bight. Part 2: Tools for assessing climate change-driven coastal hazards and socio-economic impacts
Clusters of community exposure to coastal flooding hazards based on storm and sea level rise scenarios—implications for adaptation networks in the San Francisco Bay region
Pedestrian evacuation modeling to reduce vehicle use for distant tsunami evacuations in Hawaiʻi
Land cover and land use change
HERA: A dynamic web application for visualizing community exposure to flood hazards based on storm and sea level rise scenarios
Science and Products
Community Exposure to Future Coastal Hazards in U.S. North Carolina, reference year 2020
Community Exposure to Future Coastal Hazards for U.S. Washington, reference year 2020
Exposure of FY2020 Federal Real Property Profile Data to 100-year and 500-year Flood Hazard Zones for the years 2022 and 2052
Threat prioritization framework and input data for a multi-hazard risk analysis for the U.S. Department of the Interior
Closed depression density in karst regions of the conterminous United States: features and grid data
Community Exposure in California to Coastal Groundwater Hazards Enhanced by Climate Change, reference year 2020
Community Exposure in California to Coastal Flooding Hazards Enhanced by Climate Change, reference year 2010
Influence of demand and capacity in transportation simulations of short-notice, distant-tsunami evacuations
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for three California probabilistic tsunami hazard zones and four travel speeds (shapefiles) and impaired walk travel times for all zones by parcel land-use and flow depth class (tables)
California volcano locations, threat rank and hazard zones
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for two tsunami-inundation zones (2009 and probable maximum tsunami (PMT)) and four travel speeds (slow walk, fast walk, slow run, and fast run) for American Samoa
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for two tsunami-evacuation zones (standard and extreme) and three travel speeds (impaired, slow, and fast walk) for O'ahu, HI
Evaluating social vulnerability indicators: Criteria and their application to the Social Vulnerability Index
Dynamic flood modeling essential to assess the coastal impacts of climate change
Assessing hazards and risks at the Department of the Interior—A workshop report
California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The potential for damaging earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, and wildfires is widely recognized in California. The same cannot be said for volcanic eruptions, despite the fact that they occur in the state about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. At least ten eruptions have taken place in the past 1,000 years, and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable.The