Despite fears of rising sea levels and violent storms, many people still dream of living on the water. It’s an idyllic life — until it isn’t.

Yukiko Hashida wants to figure out when the risk of living on the water outweighs the benefits and how to help coastal communities adapt to climate change. Hashida, who recently joined the University of Georgia Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, uses her background in international law and finance to inform her research into natural resource economics.

Before joining the UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences as an assistant professor in August, Hashida worked at Yale University on projects involving natural capital asset pricing.

At UGA, her research centers around the adaptation behaviors of people and how those behavior changes interact with natural environmental systems.

“I am looking at disasters in the U.S. after hurricanes and how people relocate from flooded areas to safer places, what kind of factors impact those decisions,” Hashida said. “Overall I am interested in climate change adaptation on the people’s behavior change.”

Although the majority of her time will be spent on research, Hashida also will teach an undergraduate course called “Environmental Management and Sustainable Business Practices.” She wants to bridge the gap between concepts and theories in textbooks with the more practical applications of business, as well as invite guest speakers from the industry, to give students real-world connections to the material they are learning in the classroom.

For more information about research being conducted at the UGA Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, visit agecon.uga.edu.