Eric Tate is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences.

Dr. Tate's research lies at the nexus of natural hazards and society, with particular focus on vulnerability indicators, flood loss estimation, and geospatial modeling.  At Iowa, he teaches courses on water resources, natural hazards, environmental issues, and environmental justice.

Dr. Tate earned a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Rice University, an M.S. in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of South Carolina.

His Bradford seminar abstract: Water and destruction garner the attention in flood disasters, and drive research and policy emphasis on physical processes and built environment impacts.  But the main reason we care about floods is their effect on people. Social processes are central to explaining and driving differential disaster impacts, such as who lives in the floodplain and who faces barriers in recovery.  Scientific understanding of these processes has been used to develop social vulnerability indicators.  This presentation describes current understanding social vulnerability to floods, its measurement challenges using spatial indicators, and policy relevance in a national environment increasingly focused on social equity.