Okan Pala

Okan Pala is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Geospatial Studies, North Carolina State University, specializing in emergency response and recovery for critical infrastructures, climate change adaptation, and disaster preparedness for southeastern US national parks through collaboration with the U.S. National Park Service. He also serves as a communications specialist enhancing stakeholder dialogue for NPS regional units.

His educational credentials include a Ph.D. in Software and Information Systems from UNC Charlotte, an M.S. in Forestry with GIS and remote sensing concentration from NC State University, and a B.S. in Engineering from Middle East Technical University in Turkey.

Dr. Pala's research integrates geospatial science with disaster management, focusing on critical infrastructure protection, remote sensing applications, and climate adaptation strategies. His work employs spatial analysis and geovisualization techniques for stormwater modeling, infrastructure outage simulation, and participatory decision-making frameworks within the Food-Energy-Water nexus.

His publication trajectory reveals consistent innovation in open-source geospatial tools for infrastructure resilience, emphasizing fuzzy cognitive mapping, service area accuracy assessment, and stakeholder-engaged geovisualization interfaces that bridge technical analysis with practical emergency response protocols.

Significant grant funding includes:

• NCDOT Community Studies Geospatial Sandbox (2019-2023, $389,408): Providing secure data environments, QC/QA services, and geospatial training for transportation planning
• Location Aware Public Outreach Initiative (2019-2022, $229,360): Developing spatial analysis tools and the Spatial Public Engagement Portal for targeted stakeholder communication in transportation projects

He maintains active collaboration with the U.S. National Park Service (Southeast Region) on climate adaptation and leverages partnerships with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for geospatial applications in community engagement and infrastructure planning.