Assistant Professor
tiltj@oregonstate.edu

Office: 541-737-1232

Wilkinson Hall

Wilkinson Hall 120

2601 SW Orchard Avenue

2601 SW Orchard Avenue
Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Profile Field Tabs

At OSU
Brief Research Interests: 

Community resilience to chronic and acute hazards; equitable adaptations for hazard mitigation; wildland-urban interface social vulnerability and resilience; food-energy-water nexus decision-making; green infrastructure; stakeholder engagement and outreach

Location: 
Building: 

Specialty

Social Science; land use planning; hazard mitigation, adaptation, and community resilience; Participatory GIS

Research Interests

My research focuses on: 1) exploring the individual and community drivers of vulnerability to acute and chronic natural hazards; and 2) understanding how communities and individuals perceive and develop adaptation strategies in response to these hazards.  I am particularly interested in how natural hazard mitigation decision-making at the institutional level can create adaptation measures that lead to uneven response and recovery.  As a social scientist, I use mixed-methods approaches (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, and GIS) and work to deeply engage a wide variety community members and stakeholders to co-produce feasible adaptation strategies.   My current work analyzes equitable distribution of adaptation measures for chronic (e.g. erosion, flooding) and acute (e.g. earthquake/tsunami) hazards in Oregon’s coastal regions; the relationship between social vulnerability and water pipe damage and repair after the Tubbs (Santa Rosa, CA) and Camp Fires (Paradise, CA); and co-producing adaptation strategies to manage stresses to the food-energy-water nexus in the Umatilla Basin (OR).

Education

Ph.D. Social Sciences, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, 2007
Graduate Certificate in Urban Ecology, University of Washington, 2007
M.S. Social Sciences, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, 2001
B.S. Environmental History, Utah State University, 1998

Courses

All courses are offered both on-campus and through Ecampus

Geog 250:  Land Use Planning for Sustainable Communities

Geog 451/551:  Planning Principles and Practices for Resilient Communities

Geog 452/552:  Sustainable Site Planning

ENSC 452:  Environmental Assessment

Check out past course projects for Benton County, Oregon.

Current Research Projects

Sensor Project (coming soon)

Envisioning Oregon’s Coastal Futures

Interactive Adaptation and Collaboration Tool for managing Water, Energy, and Land (InterACTWEL)

Past Research Projects

Increasing Adaptive Capacity for the Adoption of Green Infrastructure in Rural Communities—check out our educational tools:

Stormwater Solutions for Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure Solutions across the Urban to Rural Continuum

Post-Docs and Graduate Students

Current:

Andres Schmidt, Ph.D. Post-Doc (co-advised with Lisa Ellsworth, OSU Fish and Wildlife):  Sensor Technology for Improved Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Resilience

Joshua Applegate, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Sciences:  Studying Green Infrastructure Adaptation at the Urban Scale:  Definitions, Relationships, and Consequences

Froggi Van Riper, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Sciences (co-advised with Lori Cramer, Sociology):  Barriers and Opportunities for Expanding Adoption of Sustainable Sanitation Systems:  A mixed-methods Investigation through the Lens of Emergency Response

Brent Doty, M.S. Natural Resources:  Assessing Potential Implications of Treated Effluent Discharge in Karst Environments:  A Case Study in Central Texas

Past:

Katherine Stanton, M.A. Anthropology (2020):  Building Resilient Oregon Coastal Communities:  Reimagining Critical Facilities through Latinx Sense of Place.  Co-advisor, Major professor:  Bryan Tilt

Michelle Tahal, Ph.D. Environmental Sciences (2019):  Exploring Urban Parks:  Plant Communities, Visitor Experiences, and Manager Perspectives in Portland, Oregon Co-advisor, Major professor: Mary Santelmann

Luis Gomez, Ph.D. Civil Engineering (2018):  From Perception to Planning:  Adaptation in Flood-Risk Communities. Co-advisor, major professor:  Meghna Babbar-Sebens

Christine Johnson, M.S. Forestry (2017):   Value and Evaluation:  A Case Study of Interdisciplinary Green Infrastructure Continuing Professional Education Trainings.

Candice Weems, Ph.D. Geography (2016):  Examining the Spatial Distribution of Park Access and Trajectories of Gentrification in Seattle, Washington 1990-2010. Co-advisor, major professor:  Julia Jones

Publications Currently in Review

Tilt, J.H., Mondo, H., Giles, N., Rivera, S., and Babbar-Sebens, M. Where there’s a will, there’s a way: A precursor to adaptive management of the Food-Energy-Water nexus via scenario-based stakeholder engagement and a conceptual framework.  

Tilt, J.H., and Ries, P. Constraints and Catalysts towards operationalizing a green infrastructure program in rural communities.  Urban Forestry and Urban Greening 

Gomez, L. Tilt, J.H., Tullos, D., and Babbar-Sebens, M. Perceived risk and preferences of response and recovery actions of individuals living in a floodplain community. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Talal, M., Santelmann, M., and Tilt, J.H. Urban park visitors’ preferences for vegetation—an on-site qualitative research study.  Plants, People, Planet

Uslu, S., Kaur, D., Rivera, S.J., Durresi, A., Babbar-Sebens, M., and Tilt, J.H.  A Trustworthy Human-Machine Framework for Collective Decision Making in Food-Energy-Water Management: The Role of Trust Sensitivity.  Knowledge-Based Systems 

Publications

2020
Tilt, J.H. and Cerveny, L. “Urban Nature and Human Physical Health” in Anderson, P., Douglas, I., Goode, D.Houck, M., Maddox, D., Nagendra, H., and Yok, T. P. (Eds.),  The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, Second Edition, Ch. 52. 

2020
Box, J., Boon, R., Kwanda, T., Stupar, A., Tilt, J.H. and Vasquez, A. “The Role of Targets   and Standards in Delivering Urban Greenspace for People and Wildlife.”  in Anderson, P., Douglas, I., Goode, D., Houck, M., Maddox, D., Nagendra, H., and Yok, T. P. (Eds.)  The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, Second Edition, Ch. 73. 

2019
Johnson, C., Tilt, J.H., Ries, P., and Schindler, B.  Continuing Education for Green Infrastructure:  Fostering Collaboration through Interdisciplinary Trainings.  Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 41: 283-291. 

2016
Tilt, J.H. and Cerveny, L.K.  “Politics of landscape transformation in exurban King County, Washington.” In Taylor, L.E. and Hurley, P.T. (Eds) A Political Ecology of Sprawl:  Understanding Rural to Exurban Landscape Transitions. (Springer)

2015
Driscoll, A., Ries, P.D., Tilt, J.H., Ganio, L.M. Needs and barriers to expanding urban forestry programs:  An assessment of community leaders and program managers in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region.  Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.

2013
Tilt, J.H. and Cerveny, L. “Master-Planned in Exurbia:  Examining the Drivers and Impacts of Master-Planned Communities at the Urban Fringe.  Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 114, 102-112.

2010
Tilt, J.H. “Urban Nature and Human Physical Health” in Douglas, I., Good, D., Houck, M., and Wang, R. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, Ch. 32.

2010
Kearney, A.R., Tilt, J.H., and Bradley, G. “The Effects of Forest Regeneration on Preferences for Forest Treatments among Foresters, Environmentalists, and the General Public.”  Journal of Forestry, Vol. 108 (5), 215-229.

2010
Tilt, J.H.  “Walking Trips to Parks:  Exploring Demographic, Environmental Factors and Preferences for Adults with Children in the Household.” Preventive Medicine, Vol. 50 (Suppl.1), S69-S73.

2007
Tilt, J.H., Unfried, T.M., Roca, B.  “Using Objective and Subjective Measures of Neighborhood Greenness and Accessible Destinations for Understanding Walking Trips and BMI in Seattle, Washington.”  American Journal of Health Promotion Vol. 21 (4), 371-379.

2007
Tilt, J.H., Kearney, A.R and Bradley, G.  “Understanding Rural Character:  Cognitive and Visual Perceptions.”  Landscape and Urban Planning Vol. 81, 14-26.