Said A. Mejia Manrique is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering at The City College of New York (CUNY), working under the supervision of Dr. Reza Khanbilvardi. His research focuses on improving the resiliency of water infrastructure in islanded communities, with a particular emphasis on flood vulnerability in Western Puerto Rico. As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) project, he simulates water distribution systems and uses hydrologic models to identify critical infrastructure at risk from flooding.
Said plans to collaborate with the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) to analyze and validate water distribution models and propose infrastructure improvements. His broader goal is to enhance disaster preparedness and water security for coastal and island regions vulnerable to extreme weather events.
His work has been published in Hydrology, including the 2021 article, “Flood Impacts on Critical Infrastructure in a Coastal Floodplain in Western Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria,” co-authored with researchers from CUNY and the University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez. The study used the Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) model to simulate flood impacts during Hurricane Maria, identifying water infrastructure as particularly vulnerable.
In addition to his research, Said has served as a teaching assistant for Civil Engineering Data Analysis and Hydraulic Engineering courses, and as an instructor for the Octave programming course through the CUNY CREST Institute’s High School Initiative in Remote Sensing of the Earth Systems Engineering and Sciences (HIRES).