HELPING WESTERN CITIES BOUNCE BACK FROM CLIMATE EXTREMES

CLIMATE Helping Western Cities Bounce Back from Climate Extremes

IE’s Gregg Garfin and Sarah LeRoy are helping 15 western communities better prepare for five types of extreme climate events that can threaten lives, property, public health, and even tourism: extreme heat, floods, drought, wildfire, and wind.

The researchers were contracted by the Western Adaptation Alliance, a knowledge-exchange consortium led by urban sustainability directors, planners, and program managers in Aspen, Boulder and Boulder County, Denver, Ft. Collins, and Lakewood, Colorado; El Paso, Texas; Flagstaff, Tucson, and Phoenix, Arizona; Las Cruces and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah; and Las Vegas. “Climate challenges faced by municipalities in the Intermountain West differ greatly from the headlinegrabbing hurricanes, storm surges, and sea level rise faced by coastal cities in the U.S.,” Garfin said. “Often the Intermountain West’s challenges are slow onset or persistent phenomena, like drought and multi-day storms or heat waves, or indirect effects of climate and weather, like wildfires.”

Garfin and LeRoy are collecting information on on-theground impacts the cities have experienced and what steps they have taken in response. The goal is to help alliance managers communicate with key constituencies in their communities to broaden support for action on climate adaptation and improve preparedness. “We are connecting the dots between the way the cities in the region are affected,” Garfin said. “They learn from each other, and that has the potential to save them millions of dollars by being prepared instead of reacting to the aftermath of a natural disaster.”

The researchers have developed a database that catalogues impacts from the five climate extremes. The team is also developing communication tools, including interactive, user-friendly websites for decision makers, community associations, and the general public that tells the cities’ climate challenge stories using nonacademic narratives, images, maps, and hyperlinks.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA.

CLIMATE: A RISKY BUSINESS

Five UA researchers are combining their expertise in climate science, public policy, renewable energy, and business to help companies assess the risks associated with climate change. The Arizona Business Resilience Initiative took off in April 2015, when Tucson Electric Power (TEP) agreed to pilot the program. The utility will help the UA team develop and refine their strategies for integrating climate risk assessment and management into corporate business plans. “The University of Arizona has a long history of working with TEP on research-related projects, but this will be the first time we are introducing the UA’s extensive regional expertise in climate and environmental sciences to a complex set of business practices,“ said Ardeth Barnhart, director of the UA Renewable Energy Network (REN) and member of the team. “Working directly with TEP on identifying specific risks posed by ongoing environmental change and the potential solutions and new opportunities has been an important learning experience for all of us.” For now, the project is innovative and experimental, focused on collaborative research with a business partner, while also revealing more about how this process works. The research team has identified four areas of concern—climate extremes, air quality, water availability, and wildfire—and is assembling research teams of UA experts to assess the specific threats each category might pose. “Properly assessing the business risks associated with climate change is a critical component of sustainable economic growth,” said Erick Bakken, senior director of Transmission Strategy, Land and Environmental Services for TEP. “We’re happy to partner with the UA to support the development of this important initiative.” The other members of the research team are project leader Andrea Gerlak, who is also a senior policy scholar from the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, Jaron Damery-Weston, a graduate student in the Eller College of Management and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and Madeline Ryder, a graduate student in the School of Geography and Development.