Bio

Dr. Neil Debbage is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Sustainability. His research focuses on urban climatology, natural hazards, and sustainability. Specifically, Dr. Debbage utilizes GIS, statistical modeling, and numerical weather modeling to better understand how cities and their residents can become more resilient to heat and flood threats. His past research projects have studied the urban heat island effect while his ongoing work analyzes both the physical and social factors that influence urban flooding vulnerability. Dr. Debbage’s research has been published in Water Resources Research, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, and the International Journal of Climatology and appeared in a number of news outlets including NPR.

Dr. Debbage regularly offers courses that focus on weather and climate, physical geography, and GIS. He also serves as the faculty advisor for the UTSA chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), which is an international geographical honor society. Please contact him if you have any questions about GTU at UTSA.

Dr. Debbage received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. in Geography from the University of Georgia.

Recent Courses

GES 3314 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

GES 3323 – Spatial Analysis

GES 3713 – Weather and Climate

GES 3753 – Climate Change

Recent Publications

*Student Co-Author

2022 – *Forney, R., Debbage, N., Miller, P. *Uzquiano, J. Urban effects on weakly forced thunderstorms observed in the Southeast United States. Urban Climate.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212095522000797

2021 – Mingshu, W., and Debbage, N. Urban morphology and traffic congestion: Longitudinal evidence from US cities. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 89: 101676, doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101676.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0198971521000831

2021 – *Guerra, J., and Debbage, N. Changes in urban land use throughout the Edwards Aquifer: A comparative analysis of Austin, San Antonio, and the Interstate–35 corridor. Applied Geography, 133: 102480, doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102480.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622821000965

2019 – Debbage, N. Multiscalar spatial analysis of urban flood risk and environmental justice in the Charlanta megaregion, USA. Anthropocene, 28: 100226, doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100226.

Invited Paper for the Special Virtual Collection on Urban Hydroclimate Risks

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305419300372

2019 – Debbage, K., and Debbage, N. Aviation carbon emissions, route choice and tourist destinations: Is flying non-stop a remedy? Annals of Tourism Research, 78: 1027652, doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2019.102765.

Invited Paper for Virtual Special Issue on Air Transport and Tourism

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738319301227

2019 – Debbage, N., and Shepherd, J. M. Urban influences on the spatiotemporal characteristics of runoff and precipitation during the 2009 Atlanta flood. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 20: 3–21, doi: 10.1175/JHM-D-18-0010.1.

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/hydr/20/1/jhm-d-18-0010_1.xml

2018 – Debbage, N., and Shepherd, J. M. The influence of urban development patterns on streamflow characteristics in the Charlanta Megaregion. Water Resources Research, 54(5): 3728–3747, doi: 10.1029/2017WR021594.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2017WR021594

2017 – Debbage, N., Miller, P., Poore, S., Morano, K., Mote, T., and Shepherd, J. M. A climatology of atmospheric river interactions with the southeastern United States Coastline. International Journal of Climatology, 37(11): 4077–4091, doi: 10.1002/joc.5000.

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/joc.5000

2017 – Debbage, N., Bereitschaft, B., and Shepherd, J. M. Quantifying the spatiotemporal trends of urban sprawl among large U.S. metropolitan areas via spatial metrics. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 10(3): 317–345, doi: 10.1007/s12061-016-9190-6.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12061-016-9190-6

2015 – Debbage, N., and Shepherd, J. M. The urban heat island effect and city contiguity. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 54: 181–194, doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2015.08.002.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0198971515300089

2015 – Debbage, N., McLeod, J., Rackley, J., Zhu, L., Mote, T., and Grundstein, A. The role of point source aerosol emissions on atmospheric convective activity in the vicinity of power plants in Georgia, USA. Papers in Applied Geography, 1(2): 134–142. doi: 10.1080/23754931.2015.1012430.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23754931.2015.1012430?journalCode=rpag20