Research by Dr. Maghelal and colleagues awarded JAPA's Best Article for 2007

Dr. Praveen Maghelal, an assistant professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning and collaborators from Texas A&M University, and Colorado State University have been awarded the best journal article in the Journal of the American Planning Association for the year 2007. The Journal of American Planning Association (JAPA) is one of the highest ranked journals in the field of Urban Planning.

Reviewed as an article that "will become a classic in the hazard mitigation literature", and titled 'The Rising Costs of Floods: Examining the Impact of Planning and Development Decisions on Property Damage in Florida', the article reports important research results, convincingly demonstrating that flood losses are a function of where and how we build urban settlements, not just an inevitable byproduct of population growth and increased building costs. The award ceremony will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada during the annual American Planning Association conference in April 2008.