简介

r. Olshansky's teaching and research cover land use and environmental planning, with an emphasis on planning for natural hazards. He has published extensively on post-disaster recovery planning, planning and policy for earthquake risks, and policy for unstable ground. He is especially interested in understanding how human settlements can better survive in the face of periodic natural disturbances, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and sea level rise. His current research focuses on recovery following large disasters, such as the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China (for which he has a National Science Foundation grant, along with colleagues at several other universities), 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan. He and colleagues have published on the recovery following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake, 2004 Chuetsu, Japan Earthquake, and 2010 Haiti earthquake. He is the co-author of Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans (APA Press, 2010), which critically documents the post-Katrina planning process in New Orleans. He spent the 2004-2005 academic year as a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, studying post-disaster reconstruction in Japan. He has also studied post-disaster recovery management in Indonesia and India. Professor Olshansky's earlier work included studies of earthquake risk in communities in the Central U.S., land use planning implications of the 1994 Northridge California earthquake, earthquake preparedness in the Central U.S., guidelines for seismic safety advocates, the use of seismic zonation in land use planning, the role of planning in reducing earthquake risks, policies for landslide hazard reduction, financing landslide mitigation, and local hillside development policies. He also completed a comprehensive study of the local implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act.