"Wisdom begins in wonder" – Socrates
Category: Engineering
Disaster Recovery
11/25/19
“How can communities and institutions recover from disasters?”
Disasters happen all the time, particularly with the rise of climate change. As a result, when they strike, communities and institutions will need to be prepared with Disaster Recovery methods, whether it be codified plans or asset resilience prioritization.
Why Too Much Wildfire Suppression Can Lead to More Fires
11/24/19
“Why should we calm down on wildfire suppression so more fires can be prevented?”
Wildfires can be quite scary. Their uncontrollable, deadly nature makes it inconvenient for municipal governments and damaging to nearby communities. For this reason, the wildfire emergency management programs in the United States, Canada, and Australia usually put out such disasters at first notice. However, this leads to a large amount of flammable material being present, making future wildfires bolder and even more deadly. To prevent this, controlled burns need to be instituted to ensure that regenerative processes can occur. This is Why Too Much Wildfire Suppression Can Lead to More Fires.
Climate-Induced Infrastructure Insurance Divestment
11/21/19
“Why are some insurance companies divesting from carbon-intensive projects?”
Major infrastructure projects often need insurance to ensure stakeholders that their money is safe. However, some of these activities such as new power plants or gas pipelines are making the planet less safe due to their carbon-intensive nature. As a result, some insurance companies such as Chubb are limiting the amount of non-sustainable projects that they invest in. This Climate-Induced Infrastructure Insurance Divestment is growing exponentially at both the grassroots and systematic level. If you would like to help take action, check out what 350 Colorado has to say.
Wildfire Mitigation
11/19/19
“How can we mitigate wildfires before they happen?”
Wildfires are becoming the bane of every Mediterranean climate resident’s existence. And although emergency management is something necessary to develop, a milligram of prevention is worth a kilogram of cure. By practicing Wildfire Mitigation strategies, such as preventing flammable debris overgrowth, banning fire-inducing items such as cigarettes from dry areas, moving people out of burnable areas, and (in extreme cases) shutting down power lines. This has the potential to save dozens of lives and billions of dollars in property damage.
Wildfire Emergency Management
11/18/19
“How can we manage wildfire emergencies?”
The increasingly dry and hot weather in Mediterranean climates brought about by global warming is causing wildfires to exponentially increase exponentially in intensity and size. To combat this, WIldfire Emergency Management, or response to thee events, needs to be revised and implemented across the board.
How Green Roofs Can Create Flood Resilience
11/17/19
“How can green roofs be apart of flood resilience?”
Climate change is bringing new weather patterns all over the world. In some areas, this will mean flooding in almost biblical proportions. Planting urban greenery on the ground is often sought as a natural way to combat this. However, this is usually implemented on the street level, and in many dense locations such as Manhattan or Hong Kong roofs take up a larger portion of the direct surface area and streets less so. So wouldn’t it be logical if we invest resources into creating green roofs that can absorb downpours? Not only would this divert flooding but also decrease air pollution and create produce that can be used by local communities. This is How Green Roofs Can Create Flood Resilience.
Image credit http://www.buildings.com
Why Climate Change Is a Major Threat to Bridges
11/16/19
“Why are many bridges in danger of failing because of climate change?”
Bridges are vital pieces of critical infrastructure for any nation. Whether it be used for transporting goods or people, bridges are able to link disparate parts of an area together. Usually, these bridges are designed to operate in certain weather conditions. However, with the changing climate, so will these. According to research from Colorado State University, the additional heat stress in the future will cause numerous bridges to fail from failed expansion joints if no resilience action is taken. This will end up creating much stress on local communities and guaranteed economic loss. This is Why Climate Change Is a Major Threat to Bridges.
How to Build Resilience Against Fire-Inducing Winds
11/15/19
“How can we make our communities more resilient against fire-inducing winds?”
Strong winds have the potential to induce wildfires in hot dry climates. This threat will only be magnified by the transformed weather conditions induced by climate change. So how can we make our communities more resilient against these fire-inducing winds? Well, there are multiple ways of accomplishing this. First, more accurate weather prediction services can be developed so people can have a better sense of when strong winds are present. Another way is to develop microgrids connected to distributed energy resources to ensure a steady flow of electricity when the main grid has been shut down by the utility. Utilities can also underground transmission lines to insulate them against the effects of strong winds. These are only a few ways that we can think about How to Build Resilience Against Fire-Inducing Winds.
Image credit images.newscientist.com
Using Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Resilience
11/13/19
“How can we use rainwater harvesting systems for resilience?”
Water parched areas of the world are going to experience more droughts with climate change. To solve this, resilience will need to get built to ensure that communities at risk will not face disaster. Part of this solution will include Using Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Resilience by capturing and storing water that falls from the air.
Image credit https://toolkit.climate.gov/
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