Tune in to Focus Carolina during morning, noon and evening drive times and on the weekends to hear stories from faculty members at UNC and find out what ignites their passion for their work. Focus Carolina is an exclusive program on 97.9 The Hill WCHL, sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elizabeth Frankenberg, director of the Carolina Population Center, performs work in analyzing how individuals and families respond to unexpected changes — specifically in crisis situations — and how the implementation of government programs and policies can help them adapt. Currently, her work as informed be research data from the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, is being applied to better understand how communities in eastern North Carolina are affected by and respond to flooding events.
“The Carolina Population Center is a group of faculty,” said Frankenberg. “We have about 70 faculty affiliates from all over campus, and we all share an interest in population processes, population research, and the health of populations. We do a lot of work together, but we also work with other folks across the university to do research projects related to population topics.”
Founded in 1977, the CPC is known in its field for its longitudinal data collection — long-term surveys conducted in a wide range of geographic areas the United States, China, Russia, Indonesia and the Philippines. “We follow the same people over time and try to track the evolution of their family life, their health, their well-being,” said Frankenberg.
Dr. Frankenberg’s research focuses on individual and family response to change across the life course and the role of community in individual behaviors and outcomes while also working toward understanding how survival and physical and psychosocial health evolve after exposure to large-scale shocks.
“We try to stay on the cutting edge of data collection technologies and expand the ways we collect data to tap into some of those technologies,” she said.
Frankenberg is working to design a survey to analyze data from flooded areas in eastern North Carolina. Over the past five years, North Carolina has had several major hurricanes that involved significant property damage and long-term recovery. More information about where the water goes will provide a deeper understanding of the impacts of the hurricanes, according to Frankenberg.
“Our goal is to combine the techniques of survey methods, demography and economics, with geo-physical models of storm, surge, and flooding, and with remote sensing efforts,” said Frankenberg. “All to understand where water goes, in order to try to develop a more in-depth understanding of the impacts of hurricanes and also how people recover from them over time.”
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines