Carol Friedland
Director of LaHouse Research & Education Center and Professor Louisiana State University
Media
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Research Focus
Hazard-Resilient Housing & Wind Damage Mitigation
Dr. Friedland’s research focuses on hazard-resilient housing, examining how wind, flood, and multi-hazard forces threaten buildings and infrastructure in the Gulf South. She integrates structural field testing, probabilistic hazard and lifecycle-cost modeling, and outreach through LSU’s LaHouse Research & Education Center to craft cost-effective mitigation standards that cut risk and insurance losses.
Accomplishments
John R. Sheaffer Award for Excellence in Floodproofing, Association of State Floodplain Managers
2025
LSU AgCenter AgExcellence Award, LSU AgCenter
2025
LSU AgCenter AgExcellence Award, LSU AgCenter
2024
Education
Louisiana State University
Ph.D.
Civil Engineering
2009
Louisiana State University
M.S.
Civil Engineering
2005
University of Wyoming
B.S.
Civil Engineering
1998
Media Appearances
Hurricane Preparedness Week reminds everyone to plan ahead
KTBS online
2025-05-02
“Preparedness saves lives, protects property and reduces recovery time,” said Carol Friedland, director of the LSU AgCenter LaHouse Research and Education Center. “By taking a few proactive steps now, families can be better protected during hurricane season.”
Solutions to Louisiana's complex insurance crisis are in sight. Now comes the hard part.
NOLA online
2024-12-12
Carol Friedland set out to embrace resilience as a key part of her work when she took over as head of LSU’s Home and Landscape Resource Center in 2022.
Friedland had worked with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for years, helping the organization develop plans for mitigating disasters. She and University of New Orleans Professor Monica Teets Farris this year calculated the expected average losses for Louisiana by 2050: A staggering $5 billion.
LSU AgCenter gives advice on how to prepare your plants for the upcoming cold snap
WBRZ 2 ABC online
2024-01-12
LSU AgCenter professionals say everyone should pay attention to the forecasts to know ahead of time when freezing weather is approaching.
Carol Friedland, director of the LSU AgCenter LaHouse Research and Education Center, gives these tips to homeowners: [...]
Articles
Fuzzy logic use case within the built environment for optimizing sustainability versus cost in the material selection process
Frontiers in Built Environment2025
This study aims to investigate the application of fuzzy logic in decision-making within the Built Environment. The research focuses on achieving a balance between reducing carbon emissions and increasing costs in the selection of materials and equipment. This balance is measured by Life Cycle Carbon Emissions (LCCE) and is evaluated using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. By modeling fuzzy logic against classical binary logic within MATLAB, the study demonstrates how fuzzy logic’s “degrees of truth” may be utilized to construct customized stakeholder buy-in profiles and also achieve increased mathematical precision.
Bibliometric Web of Science and Google Trends analysis of multi-criteria decision analysis within the built environment
Frontiers in Built Environment2025
This research aims to leverage existing data sources to provide new insights into the usage of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in the built environment without creating a new data collection process. The study is focused upon built environment vocations, spanning the disciplines of architecture, construction management, urban planning, real estate, facilities management, and the numerous engineering domains that support capital projects. The method of the study utilized Google search engine data from Google Trends and academic literature metadata from Web of Science, which was analyzed using Bibliometrix via the Biblioshiny interface.
Development of Sustainable Low-Cement Construction 3D Printing Materials via Dense Particle Packing
ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering2025
This study seeks to enhance the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of Construction 3D Printing (C3DP) as a construction method. A key challenge in C3DP is the excessive Portland cement content (typically> 600 kg/m³) of printing materials, increasing construction costs and the resulting carbon footprint. To address this, an image-based automated gradation system was developed and tested to facilitate particle packing optimization. To design eco-friendly printing materials, large aggregates (up to 3/8") and quarry by-products were included as ingredients. The experimental results validated the packing density calculations, showing consistency with theoretical analysis based on the Modified Andreasen & Andersen method, and the proposed novel image-based gradation technique.
Implications of freeboard policy for homeowners in different income-groups: A case study of Jefferson parish
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change2025
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) encourages the adoption of at least a 1ft. freeboard against flooding. Though freeboard is an effective flood mitigation method, the strategy involves additional investment that may cause economic liabilities. Moreover, such strategies are often generalized and do not consider optimal requirements at the micro-level. To this end, this study identifies the factors of economic vulnerability and proposes a framework for investigating the implications of such policy on different income groups. The discriminant analysis method was used to empirically quantify vulnerability and identify factors that are significant contributors to vulnerability.
Wind risk and mitigation calculator framework for determining the wind annualized risk for single-and multi-family homes to support resilient community decision-making
Resilient Cities and Structures2024
Communicating risks and mitigation benefits associated with natural hazards such as wind to the general public is challenging given the location-dependency of parameters and the complexity of the problem. Web tools play a crucial role in educating residents, decision-makers, and stakeholders regarding potential wind hazard losses to, for example, residential buildings.
Research Grants
Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies
National Science Foundatio
2024
Building Resilience through Extension, Awareness and Knowledge
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture
2023
