Harris Bienn joined the Institute in 2014 as a research intern focused primarily on engineering design and innovation. He then moved into the social sciences realm and studied the relationship between population health and oil and gas infrastructure development. His research interests include environmental justice, human response to environmental hazard, nature-based solutions for water resources management, and data modeling and analysis using geographic information systems (GIS).
His recent work at the Institute includes a comprehensive water resources assessment for the state of Louisiana, research regarding coastal communities’ response to disasters, identification of vulnerable coastal infrastructure through photogrammetric analysis, and quantification of the social and economic value associated with environmental restoration projects.
Prior to joining the Institute, Harris worked for the Jacobs Alliance Group at the ExxonMobil Chemical Plant doing process engineering preparations for turnaround projects. Harris spent four years in the United State Marine Corps as an enlisted infantryman and left the service in 2012.
Harris graduated from Louisiana State University’s College of Civil and Environmental Engineering in May of 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering. He anticipates future academic endeavors related to the nexus of anthropogenic development and adaptive water resources management.
Projects
- Identifying how communities respond to disasters
- Supporting the Working Coast
- Partnership for Our Working Coast
- Statewide Water Resources Framework
- City of Covington: Flood Response Plan Development
- Institute researchers author five journal articles in special issue of Shore and Beach journal “Deepwater Horizon 10 years later”
- Louisiana Adaptive Management Status and Improvement Report: Vision and Recommendations
Reports
- Monitoring Plans for Louisiana's System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP) Version IV
- Louisiana Adaptive Management Status and Improvement Report: Vision and Recommendations
- A Community-Informed Framework for Quantifying Risk and Resilience in Southeast Louisiana
- Science-based Decision Support for Restoration and Conservation Planning in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Publications
- Modeling current and future freshwater inflow needs of a subtropical estuary to manage and maintain forested wetland ecological conditions
- Engaging coastal community members about natural and nature-based solutions to assess their ecosystem function
- Knowledge-Based Predictive Tools to Assess Effectiveness of Natural and Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Restoration and Protection Planning
- Elevating local knowledge through participatory modeling: active community engagement in restoration planning in coastal Louisiana
- Monitoring plans for Louisiana’s system-wide assessment and monitoring program (SWAMP). Version IV
- Louisiana Adaptive Management Status and Improvement Report: Vision and Recommendations
- Gulf-wide data synthesis for restoration planning: Utility and limitations
- Double exposure and dynamic vulnerability: Assessing economic well-being, ecological change and the development of the oil and gas industry in coastal Louisiana
See All Work
FEATURED WORK
Finding the right flow
Estuaries, wetlands, and swamps depend upon the constant inflow of fresh water to sustain the ecosystem’s balance of pla...
Identifying the vulnerability of critical infrastructure
When storm surge and extreme rainfall events inundate an area of coastal Louisiana, it’s not just homes and businesses t...
Identifying how communities respond to disasters
Although there has been good work (see the Louisiana Coastal Atlas) on defining when and where Louisiana’s residents hav...