Profile

PhD Planning, Governance, and Globalization, Virginia Tech
MCP Community Planning, University of Cincinnati
MS Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati
BE Landscape Architecture, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Anamaria Bukvic is a social scientist with over a decade of experience researching the human dimensions of coastal challenges, including adaptation, resilience, vulnerability, security, and population mobility. Her work integrates qualitative and quantitative methods to tackle societal issues related to flooding in both urban and rural settings in the U.S. and internationally. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed publications and secured more than $4 million in research funding. Her externally funded projects, supported by the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the State of Virginia, investigated the impacts of chronic and episodic coastal flooding on coupled socio-ecological systems, coping capacity, resilience, migration, and social stability in coastal communities. Dr. Bukvic was a Fellow in the 2019 Early Career Innovators Program at NCAR, served as the Associate Director of the Center for Coastal Studies, and has been a council member of the Climigration Network. 

Sponsored Research

• National Fish and Wildlife Federation (NFWF), grant #75892: National Coastal Resilience Fund. Mitigating flood risks on the Mississippi coast through equity-based stakeholder engagement (PI Biber, USM, 2023-2025).
• Department of Defense (DOD) Minerva Initiative. Anticipating coastal population mobility: A path to maladaptation or sociopolitical stability (PI Bukvic, VT, 2024-2028, terminated in spring 2025).
• NSF Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES), grant #2307331 - DISES: Coupled socio-ecological mobility in the coastal zone (PI Bukvic, VT, 2023-2026).
• Virginia Tech Foundation - Charting Environmental Security (PU Bukvic, VT, 2022-2023). 
• Social Science Research Council - Converging Displacements: Sustaining Humanities Approaches to Displacement Studies (PI Powell, VT, 2022-2023).
• National Center for Atmospheric Research's Early Career Innovators Program; PI: Bukvic - Changing coastlines, changing mobility: when staying in place is no longer an option (PI Bukvic, VT, 2019-21).
• NSF Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment (HDBE), grant #1920478 - Assessing the impacts of coastal flood-induced relocation on local jurisdictions (PI Bukvic, VT, 2019-2022).
• 4VA Collaborative Research Grant, State of Virginia - Shaping community resilience: measuring coping capacity to recurrent flooding in different coastal urban neighborhoods (PI Bukvic, VT, 2019-2020)
• NSF CRISP Type 1/Collaborative Research - Human-centered computational framework for urban and community design of resilient coastal cities (PI Rhode-Barbarigos, UM, 2016-2019). 

Bukvic, A. & Zobel, C. (2023). Drivers of slow-onset displacement in the coastal Mid-Atlantic region and preferences for receiving locations. Book chapter in: Hamza, M., Amaratunga, D., Haigh, R., Dr. Malalgoda, C., and Jayakody, C. (Eds), Rebuilding Communities after Displacement: Sustainable and Resilience Approaches. Springer, Switzerland

Full publication list is available on Google Scholar: 

Bukvic, A., Richardson, B., Cooper, T., & Delgado L. (2025). Towards resilient civilian-military interfaces on the costs: Addressing social vulnerability drivers. Environmental Research: Climate 4, 025008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/add28e 

Yusuf, W., Bukvic, A., & Covi, M. (2023). Property-level adaptive response: The role of household perceived vulnerability and coping capacity. Coastal Management 53(3), 282–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/08920753.2025.2494965

Bukvic, A., & Zobel, C. (2024). Flood-induced mobility in rural and urban coastal jurisdictions: a homeowner's perspective. Climatic Change, 177(11), 164.

Shortridge, J., Bukvic, A., Allen, T., Mitchell, M., and Goldstein, J. (2024). Characterizing climate socio-environmental tipping points in coastal communities: A conceptual framework for research and practice. Earth's Future, 12(7), e2023EF004123. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF004123

Crawford, M.*, Bukvic, A., Rijal, S. Gohlke J. (2023). The social cascades of exposure to flood-induced Natech events on vulnerable populations in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Natural Hazards 119, 1633–1663. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06148-x

Bukvic, A. & Borate, A.* (2023). Identifying vulnerabilities of older residents in Miami-Dade County to episodic and chronic flooding. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 17(e465), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2023.133

Bukvic, A., Mitchell, A.*, Shao, Y. & Irish, J.L. (2023). Spatiotemporal implications of flooding on relocation risk in rural and urban coastal municipalities. Land Use Policy, 132, 106754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106754

Bukvic, A. & Barnett, S.* (2023). What drives urban coastal residents to consider relocation? Insights from the U.S. East Coast. Journal of Environmental Management 325, 116429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116429  

Garland, A. Bukvic, A. & Maton, A.* (2022). Perceptions of hazards, environmental change, and relocation in the North Slope Borough, Alaska. Climate Risk Management, 100460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2022.100460  

Bukvic, A., Whittemore, A.*, Gonzales, J.*, & Wilhelmi, O. (2022). Understanding relocation in flood-prone coastal communities through the lens of place attachment. Journal of Applied Geography, 146, 102758.

Bukvic, A. & Borate, A.* (2021). Acquisition and relocation in coastal communities: assessment of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program 1989-2016. Environmental Hazards, 20(3), 279-299. DOI: 10.1080/17477891.2020.1804819

Bukvic, A., Rohat, G.*, Apotsos, A., & de Sherbinin, A. (2020). A systematic review of coastal vulnerability mapping. Sustainability, Special Issue: Climate Risk and Vulnerability Mapping, 12(7), 2822. DOI: 10.3390/su12072822

de Sherbinin, A., Bukvic, A., Rohat, G.*, Gall, M., McCusker, B., … & Zhang, S. (2019). Climate change vulnerability mapping: A systematic review and future prospects. WIRES Climate Change, 10(5), e600.  DOI:10.1002/wcc.600

Bukvic, A. & Harrald, J. (2019). Rural versus urban perspective on coastal flooding: the insights from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic communities. Climate Risk Management, 23, 7-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.crm.2018.10.004

Bukvic, A., Gohlke J., Borate, A.*, & Suggs, J.* (2018). The health and wellbeing risk to older residents residing in flood-prone coastal communities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Special Issue: Extreme Weather Events and Health, 15(12), 2900. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15122900

*Graduate students