Community-based education and awareness programs minimized the death toll from the recent Samoan tsunami, though there are still ways to improve the warning and evacuation process, according to a team of researchers that traveled to Samoa last month.

Dr. Dirk Schaefer will join 48 of the nation’s brightest young engineering researchers and educators who have been selected to take part in the inaugural symposium.

“In many areas of the world’s ocean, iron concentrations are so low that phytoplankton growth is reduced,” Mann said. “An increase in iron availability will lead to the removal of more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.”

Savannah, the “Hostess City of the South,” is known for its southern hospitality and charm, but it is also making a bid to be known as environmentally friendly. Already, the City has implemented a number of initiatives, including converting all of its traffic lights to more energy-efficient and long-lasting LEDs, expanding use of treated wastewater for irrigation and implementing a much-anticipated single-stream curbside recycling program.

The threat of hurricanes is not taken lightly by residents of the Gulf and East Coasts, nor by the engineers responsible for developing and maintaining coastal landforms and infrastructure. Indeed, if any positive can be found in the devastation wrought by hurricanes and tropical storms, it is the resulting improvement in preparedness - from post-disaster emergency response to more stringent building codes and increased environmental protection.