Scott Hemmerling, Ph.D. is Lead Scientist with The Water Institute, focusing on research related to climate adaptation and community resilience. A cultural geographer with more than twenty years of experience investigating the impacts of environmental change on coastal communities, his recent work is focused on developing approaches to incorporate local knowledge into assessments of community resilience and quantifying the social value of ecosystem restoration projects.

Dr. Hemmerling is the principal investigator on the Louisiana Coastal Atlas project, a geographical study examining the effects of historical social, economic, and environmental stresses on community resilience. He is also working on several projects to develop methodological approaches for measuring socioeconomic change in coastal communities. This includes a social impact assessment methodology for coastal restoration projects and a human-systems monitoring plan as part of the Louisiana’s System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP). Most recently, Dr. Hemmerling developed approaches to incorporate local knowledge into assessments of community resilience and quantify the social value of ecosystem restoration projects.