C. Avalon Cullen

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at City University of New York

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Latin American and Caribbean region are among the most vulnerable to climate change, with intensifying and more frequent disasters posing a significant threat to infrastructure, human life, and to achieving global Sustainable Development Goals. Urgent regional and localized approaches are needed for...

Citation: Avalon-Cullen, C.; Al Suhili, R.; Newlands, N.K.; Caudill, C.; Hill, H.; Spence-Hemmings, J.; Enenkel, M. ENSO Impacts on Jamaican Rainfall Patterns: Insights from CHIRPS High-Resolution Data for Disaster Risk Management. GeoHazards 2024, 5, 91-111. https://doi.org/10.3390/ geohazards5010005 Academic Editors: Abstract: This study examines...

Citation: Avalon-Cullen, C.; Al Suhili, R.; Newlands, N.K.; Caudill, C.; Hill, H.; Spence-Hemmings, J.; Enenkel, M. ENSO Impacts on Jamaican Rainfall Patterns: Insights from CHIRPS High-Resolution Data for Disaster Risk Management. GeoHazards 2024, 5, 91-111. https://doi.org/10.3390/ geohazards5010005 Academic Editors: Abstract: This study examines...

Jamaica, as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), is highly vulnerable to weather extremes. As precipitation persistence is a critical factor in determining the susceptibility of an area to risks, this work assesses the spatial and temporal variations of rainfall persistence in Jamaica from 1981 to 2020, using satellite-based information. The Hur...

The Caribbean region is highly vulnerable to multiple hazards. Resultant impacts may be derived from single or multiple cascading risks caused by hydrological-meteorological, seismic, geologic, or anthropological triggers, disturbances, or events. Studies suggest that event records and data related to hazards, risk, damage, and loss are limited in...

Despite great advances in remote sensing technologies, accurate satellite information is sometimes challenged in tropical regions where dense vegetation prevents the instruments from retrieving reliable readings. In this work, we introduce a satellite-based landslide rainfall threshold for the country of Colombia by studying 4 years of rainfall mea...

Urban flooding is a frequent problem affecting cities all over the world. The problem is more significant now that the climate is changing and urbanization trends are increasing. Various, physical hydrological models such as the Environmental Protection Agency Storm Water Management Model (EPA SWMM), MIKE URBAN-II and others, have been developed to...

Spruce beetle-induced (Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) mortality on the Kenai Peninsula has been hypothesized by local ecologists to result in the conversion of forest to grassland and subsequent increased fire danger. This hypothesis stands in contrast to empirical studies in the continental US which suggested that beetle mortality has only a neg...

Rainfall-induced shallow landslides are one of the most frequent hazards on slanted terrains. Intense storms with high-intensity and long-duration rainfall have high potential to trigger rapidly moving soil masses due to changes in pore water pressure and seepage forces. Nevertheless, regardless of the intensity and/or duration of the rainfall, sha...

Rainfall induced landslides are one of the most frequent natural hazards on slanted terrains. They lead to significant economic losses and fatalities worldwide. Most factors inducing shallow landslides are local and can only be mapped with high levels of uncertainty at larger scales. This work presents an attempt to determine slope instability usin...