About

Katherine Lieberknecht is an associate professor in the Community and Regional Planning program at the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin. She researches environmental planning centered around equity, with specific focus areas on climate planning, urban greening, and water planning, often in partnership with communities. Dr. Lieberknecht teaches courses on climate relocation and migration, water planning, urban greening, and sustainable land use planning. Her background includes working in regional land conservation, and she holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the College of William and Mary, a Master in Environmental Management from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. She serves as co-chair of Planet Texas 2050, a university research program that advances interdisciplinary research about climate change and resilience and co-designs adaptive strategies with communities. Additionally, she has led and contributed to various research projects related to climate adaptation, resilience, and urban sustainability, and has been recognized with awards for her service and teaching.

Research topics

• Geography
• Computer Science
• Computer Security
• Political Science
• Environmental resource management
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Environmental planning
• Process management
• Business
• Civil engineering
• Economics
• Biology
• Physical geography
• Architectural engineering
• Atmospheric sciences
• Forestry
• Meteorology
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Optimizing fluvial flood mitigation strategies: A multi-objective approach for cost-effective and socially-aware infrastructure feasibility analysis

  International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · 2026-01-09

  articleOpen access

  Effective levee planning must balance capital cost, risk reduction, and community priorities. These objectives are rarely optimized together. This study presents a feasibility phase, simulation-in-the-loop framework that couples terrain-based flood modeling with a socially aware multi-objective optimizer. Flood risk is measured as Expected Annual Exposed Population (EAEP), obtained by integrating exposure over Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) nodes, mirroring the Hydrologic Engineering Center's Flood Damage Reduction Analysis (HEC-FDA) expected-annual formulation but with people rather than dollars. Exposure per scenario is computed by overlaying binary inundation masks with a population surface at the tract level. Distributional fairness is encoded through a Group Benefit Share (GBS) constraint that requires high-SVI tracts to receive at least a baseline share of annualized benefits. Capital cost is represented by a height-dependent unit-cost model suitable for screening. This study addresses the two-objective problem, minimize cost and expected annual exposure subject to the GBS constraint, using Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and leveraging Pareto front for feasibility phase decision making. Implemented with terrain-based flood modeling, GeoFlood, for rapid scenario evaluation, the framework is demonstrated in Southeast Texas. The results reveal clear trade-offs among cost, risk, and social benefits and identify non-dominated levee height configurations that satisfy the benefit-share floor. The contributions are a scalable decision support method that operationalizes expected annual population-based risk, embeds enforceable benefit-sharing guarantees, and uses lightweight simulation to explore large design spaces before higher fidelity design stages.

  PublisherDOI

• “Saber Que No Estaba Sola; Knowing I Was Not Alone”: A Community’s Organizing Through Technology for Resilience

  Management Communication Quarterly · 2026-01-30

  articleOpen access

  Socially and financially disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected by increasingly frequent and cascading disasters, leaving them limited time to prepare, respond, and learn. Existing theory about resilience in disaster situations rarely integrates cultural considerations and the role of technology into resilience practices. To address these gaps, this study employed an anticipatory resilience framework to analyze 22 in-depth interviews, with community members involved in designing and implementing a community-owned disaster data portal. Following research methods respecting the participants’ language and culture, our grounded theory analysis revealed three core categories used to develop a new theory of resilience. Culturally anchored digital resilience theory claims that culture shapes the sensemaking, adoption, and knowledge production processes in resilient practices, challenging dominant narratives that exclude those most affected by disasters. The findings show how cultural context and communication can support technology-infused resilience initiatives and provide guidance for developing culturally sustained resilience tools.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Flood Mitigation Strategies: A Multi-Objective Approach for Cost-Effective and Socially Equitable Infrastructure Design

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Scenario Generation for Built Environment Decision Support under Uncertainty: Case Studies of Airflow Modeling and Climate-Resilient Infrastructure System Design

  Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering · 2025-03-18 · 3 citations

  article

  When confronted with unforeseen challenges, practicing informed decision making is crucial for enhancing resilience in the built environment. While scan-to-building information modeling (BIM) is a well-established approach for creating detailed digital representations of physical assets, its application in assessing and improving infrastructure resilience remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by proposing a novel application of scan-to-BIM, namely, scan-to-BIM-to-digital twin (S-BIM-DT) workflow. By integrating reality capture and digital twin technologies, this workflow creates continuously updated and accurate digital representations of physical assets, enabling the generation of various scenarios. Unlike traditional methods, the S-BIM-DT workflow facilitates continuous model refinement, supporting informed resilience strategies. By combining these technologies into a cohesive process, the workflow facilitates decision making under uncertainty, enabling stakeholders to evaluate and respond to various scenarios effectively. We demonstrate the implementation of the S-BIM-DT workflow through two use cases that highlight its capability to enhance resilience at different scales. The first use case involves the Combined Transportation, Emergency, and Communications Center (CTECC) in Austin, Texas. BIM-enriched computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling simulates airflow and develops alternative scenarios for optimizing the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. This approach enhances resilience against airborne health threats in a postCOVID context. The second use case focuses on designated areas within Beaumont, Texas, as part of the Southeast Texas Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (SETx-UIFL) research. By developing inundation maps to assess extreme weather events, this modeling aids in preparedness efforts and informs the development of climate-resilient infrastructure in vulnerable neighborhoods. Results indicate that the S-BIM-DT workflow effectively generates scenarios that enhance resilience in the built environment by facilitating informed decision making. This study serves as a bridge between advanced scan-to-BIM methodologies and the practical strategies needed to improve built infrastructure resilience.

  PublisherDOI

• Diverging Point-Source Pathogen Pollution Patterns across Urban–Rural Gradient and Pollutant Sources in Texas, United States

  Environmental Science & Technology Letters · 2025-12-15

  article

  Patterns of point-source bacteria pollution remain underinvestigated, despite the long-standing implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and its extensive data. Using NPDES pathogen loads measured at permitted outfalls before entering receiving waters (2010–2022), we analyzed their spatiotemporal distribution. We then applied linear mixed models to examine the relationships among racial composition, economic disadvantages, housing characteristics, and pathogen loads across urban–suburban–rural gradients, revealing differences in community exposure risk. We also tested whether pathogens sourced from domestic sewage and wastewater exhibited different patterns. In urban areas, the poverty rate was positively associated with pathogen loads from domestic sewage but not wastewater, suggesting that centralized wastewater systems may mitigate pollution disparities. In suburban areas, low-income census tracts tend to have higher pathogen disparities from wastewater. In rural areas, larger Hispanic/Latino and Black populations were associated with higher pathogen loads from both sources, while the poverty rate was only associated with wastewater pathogen loads. Results suggest that centralized systems are not equitable in Texas rural areas, while decentralized and domestic systems might have insufficient data. The findings underscore the multifaceted factors associated with point-source pathogen pollution patterns and emphasize the need for context-specific interventions according to pollutant sources and urbanization levels.

  PublisherDOI

• Labor lacuna: Disjunctures between local climate action and workforce development in advancing just transitions

  Journal of Urban Affairs · 2024-01-11 · 2 citations

  article

  U.S. cities have launched expansive climate action initiatives, often touting these efforts' economic development and job creation benefits. However, without creating the conditions for high-quality jobs and improved access and inclusion, climate mitigation initiatives may be shaped by neoliberal labor principles that sustain inequality. Drawing upon just transition, economic development, and workforce planning literature, we examine the role of workforce development in municipal climate mitigation efforts. Using Austin, Texas, as a critical case, and interviews with local public and non-profit organizations, we illustrate robust green job growth in a range of occupations can provide access to career-building, quality jobs for economically disenfranchised residents. Our case demonstrates that when state policies hamper just transition efforts, local government actions can still shape better outcomes. These case study insights can extend to numerous urban regions where state government policies work strongly against joining climate action and equitable economic development.

  PublisherDOI

• Moving toward community preparedness efficacy: Uncovering barriers in communities disproportionately impacted by flooding

  Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management · 2024-01-03 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Disasters can have devastating impacts on communities particularly when they are disproportionately impacted by flooding. Despite the presence of governmental programs implemented to increase community preparedness for flooding, communities may still struggle. Currently, we have limited holistic knowledge of barriers that stifle community preparedness. To address this gap, we conducted 32 in‐depth interviews with stakeholders including community members, leaders, and city employees in a community subject to flood risk. The findings suggest that preparedness is not overcome simply by providing knowledge, and people do not necessarily embrace preparedness after participating in training programs. Rather, community preparedness is entwined with addressing chronic stressors, increasing community participation, and attending to social justice and broken trust due to historical mistreatment of the community. We hereby introduce the notion of community preparedness efficacy—defined as the barriers needed to be overcome for communities to be able to prepare for disasters—that considers chronic stressors, community participation, social justice, and equity to move underserved communities forward.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Closing the Climate Gap

  Journal of the American Planning Association · 2024-03-29 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Problem, research strategy, and findingsAlthough theory and practice contend that local knowledge improves climate adaptation planning, little research has documented the kinds of information shared by residents. Planners can use this information to assist in the creation of planning processes and tools, as well as investigate how local knowledge contributes—or does not contribute—to planning outcomes. We developed a provisional typology of how local knowledge has been used for adaptation planning and used a case study to ask: When compared with existing research, what information do residents share? How might this knowledge be useful for climate adaptation? In interviews, residents identified new ideas about local knowledge and climate adaptation planning: cascading harms and repeated trauma from—and mental health implications related to—climate events, lack of trust in municipalities, and how community capacity increases climate adaptation. Although these themes support existing research, to our knowledge, these findings are the first empirical data from studies focused on local knowledge in which frontline residents themselves identified the need for increased attention to mental health, community capacity, and trust building. Our findings contribute to larger conversations about climate adaptation planning as well as help inform the development of an adaptation tool in Austin (TX).Takeaway for practiceWe identified three takeaways for climate adaptation planning: increase acknowledgment of and attention to mental health effects, integrate local knowledge about community capacity, and consider incorporating local knowledge to build trust.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Q-methodology to discover disaster resilience perspectives from local residents

  International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · 2024-03-01 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Muddling from the middle out: Multi-scalar governance for place-based and adaptive sustainability in Texas

  Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development · 2024-08-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Given the eclectic and localized nature of environmental risks, planning for sustainability requires solutions that integrate local knowledge and systems while acknowledging the need for continuous re-evaluation. Social-ecological complexity, increasing climate volatility and uncertainty, and rapid technological innovation underscore the need for flexible and adaptive planning. Thus, rules should not be universally applied but should instead be place-based and adaptive. To demonstrate these key concepts, we present a case study of water planning in Texas, whose rapid growth and extreme weather make it a bellwether example. We review historic use and compare the 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022 Texas State Water Plans to examine how planning outcomes evolve across time and space. Though imperfect, water planning in Texas is a concrete example of place-based and adaptive sustainability. Urban regions throughout the state exhibit a diversity of strategies that, through the repeated 5-year cycles, are ever responding to evolving trends and emerging technologies. Regional planning institutions play a crucial role, constituting an important soft infrastructure that links state capacity and processes with local agents. As opposed to “top-down” or “bottom-up”, we frame this governance as “middle-out” and discuss how such a structure might extend beyond the water sector.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• SCC-IRG Track 2: Integrating Information Flows and Supporting Communities as Decision-Makers in Response to Acute and Chronic Stressors

  NSF · $1.2M · 2020–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Fernanda Leite

  10 shared

• R. Patrick Bixler

  The University of Texas at Austin

  8 shared

• Keri K. Stephens

  5 shared

• J. Amy Belaire

  The Nature Conservancy

  5 shared

• Deidre Zoll

  The University of Texas at Austin

  4 shared

• S. Richter

  The University of Texas at Austin

  4 shared

• Shalene Jha

  4 shared

• Juliana Felkner

  The University of Texas at Austin

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• 2020-2022 UT Austin Humanities Institute Fellow
• UT Austin's School of Architecture's Outstanding Service Awa…
• UT Austin's School of Architecture's Outstanding Teacher (Le…