October Webinar
- Climate Adaptation and Scenarios: Planning for the Built Environment
- 10/28/2014
- Infrastructure & Climate Network (ICNet) Webinar co-hosted by CESTiCC
Presenter(s)
Paul Kirshen
- Department of Environmental Engineering
- University of New Hampshire
Abstract
An adaptation strategy is a set of local and regional proactive actions implemented by public and private organizations to manage systems, over time and space, which are vulnerable to present and future climate conditions. The major attributes of the planning process include: (1) a vulnerability assessment, (2) selection of actions that are robust and/or flexible and adjustable with implementation tied to critical thresholds of actual climate changes, (3) climate change scenario analysis including climate surprises to handle the uncertainty of the future climate, (4) integration with the protection of the natural and social environments, (5) evaluation with multiple criteria, and (6) integration of local stakeholders into the planning process. Multiple methods can be used to generate and evaluate adaptation strategies. Several case studies are presented. Paul Kirshen is a research professor in Environmental Engineering at the University of New Hampshire
Speaker Bio(s)
Dr. Paul Kirshen is a Civil Engineer with 30 years of experience serving as Principal Investigator of complex, interdisciplinary, participatory research related to water resources, coastal zone, and infrastructure management and climate variability and change. He is presently Research Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. He is a Lead Author for the Fifth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (WGII, Chapter 26, North America) and the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (Coastal Zone Development and Ecosystems). He also serves on several state committees and commissions on climate change adaptation. He works at scales ranging from local to international. Presently is he carrying out vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans for many municipalities in the eastern US. He has over 50 published journal articles on these topics as well as many book chapters and reports. He teaches courses on Sustainable Infrastructure, Climate Change Adaptation, and Integrated Water Resources Management. He received his ScB in Engineering from Brown University and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
