Tag: Risk

Bluelining

06/03/21

“How will the impact of increased flood risk on insurance further perpetuate segregation?”

In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S government forbade residents of certain neighborhoods (Specifically ones that Black Folk were forced to live in) to apply for a home mortgage. While this was later declared constitutionally illegal, the confluence of climate change and the private insurance markets may bring it back in an insidious new form. When updated floodmaps predict that new neighborhoods will become unsaveable, they may deny homeowners in those regions from receiving insurance coverage. This will turn the homes in this area into stranded assets that will be extremely difficult to sell and pose extreme financial liability. This new phenomena of Bluelining will only serve as a compounding factor for people living in flood-prone regions, which are already disproportionately made up of lower systemic caste communities. Flood risk prediction and insurance designers will need to take into consideration how their work will possibly harm the same people they should be seeking to serve.

Geospatial Risk Analysis

Geospatial Risk Analysis

Geospatial Risk Analysis

10/15/20

“How can we use geospatial technologies to analyze risk?”

Risk analysis is one of the most important techniques to be used for climate adaptation work. However, sometimes a visual reference might be necessary to what’s going on. In this case, the use of geospatial tools can be of the greatest assistance, whether it be seeing which regions might be most prone to wildfires or how sea-level rise is affecting existing housing stock.  Geospatial Risk Analysis is a tool that would be great for any climate adaptation professional to use.

Image credit http://www.mdpi.com

How Pipeline Failures Harm Local Water Supplies

How Pipeline Failures Harm Local Water Supplies

How Pipeline Failures Harm Local Water Supplies

07/16/20

“How do pipeline failures threaten local water supplies?”

 

Pipelines are used to transport heavy, often-toxic fluids long distances. Although sturdy, these pieces of infrastructure are not invulnerable. In fact, if damaged, these toxic substances can spill out into localized water sources, contaminating them. This was one of the reasons for the blocking of the Keystone pipeline. This is How Pipeline Failures Harm Local Water Supplies.

Wildfire Simulation

Wildfire Simulation

Wildfire Simulation

04/29/20

“How can we simulate wildfires?”

 

Wildfires can cause damage in often unpredictable ways. In order to add a deeper level of risk analysis to this, Wildfires Simulations can be done to compute what a possible wildfire would look like. Wildfire simulations can take in aspects such as Wind speed, wind direction, fuel moisture content, fuelscape, ignition location, ignition probability, containment probability, fire duration.

 

Image credit http://www.firelab.org

How Climate Change Is Making the Bay Area Windier and More Prone to Fires

How Climate Change Is Making the Bay Area Windier and More Prone to Fires

How Climate Change Is Making the Bay Area Windier and More Prone to Fires

11/14/19

“Why is a windier Bay Area more at risk of fires?”

 

The Earth’s climate is changing more and more as larger volumes of carbon dioxide are poured into the atmosphere. Nothing seems to be unaffected, not even wind speeds. Although the data right now is scarce, current projections are showing that Northern California is experiencing windier seasons years after year in the autumn, which when combined with dry and hot conditions can lead to wildfires. As a result, government officials may need to think about how to incorporate this issue into their resilience planning. This is How Climate Change Is Making the Bay Area Windier and More Prone to Fires.

 

Image credit https://climatefeedback.org/

Hurricane Resilience

Hurricane Resilience

Hurricane Resilience

09/02/19

“How can we make our infrastructure more resilient against hurricanes?”

With the advent of climate change, hurricanes are becoming more and more powerful. Just by witnessing the devastating aftermath from storms such as Katrina and Marina one can see that infrastructure in storm-prone areas needs to be redeveloped around Hurricane Resilience. Hurricane resilience can take many forms, such as hardening structures against wind to making streets more permeable to an influx of water.

Consequence Assessment

Consequence Assessment

Consequence Assessment

08/29/19

“How can we assess the consequences of a risk?”

Risks are something that come in every engineering system, whether it be the probability that a dam overflows or a forest fire breaks out. However, how can we assess what will be the effects of the mishap on the surrounding community? Well, we can perform a Consequence Assessment to quantify or categorize how harmful things will be.