
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science and Geography
Research area: Urban Climatology, Natural Hazards, Urban Resilience, GIScience, Numerical Weather Modeling
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: (210) 458-5603
Office: MS 4.03.51
Office hours: W 9:30-12:30
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.
GES 3713 – Weather and Climate
GES 3314 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
In Revision – Debbage, N., and Shepherd, J. M. Urban influences on the spatiotemporal characteristics of runoff and precipitation during the 2009 Atlanta flood. Journal of Hydrometeorology.
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
Main Office: MS 4.03.62
Department of Political Science and Geography
University of Texas at San Antonio
College of Liberal and Fine Arts
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249-1644