Both infrastructure disasters and infrastructure funding bills are back in the news, so Jason Sauer sat down with Dr. Sam Markolf to talk about a paper Sam published last year about disasters and better infrastructure design. We talk about how old infrastructure “locks us in” to living with its consequences and how it creates path dependencies in creating future forms and functions of cities. We end up talking a lot about Miami, but the lessons here also apply to cities across the US and around the world! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
Hospitals are critical to the health of any city, providing essential care to the communities that they serve. Unlike many other buildings, hospitals can't simply close and send everyone away during an extreme event since it would be dangerous to the patients in need to critical care. In this month's episode, Stephen Elser interviews two leaders from the CannonDesign firm, whose work includes designing hospitals to be resilient to a wide variety of disturbances. We discuss what it means for a hospital to be resilient, the use of landscaping to create "healing environments", and the importance of tailoring a design strategy to meet specific needs. We also hear about their past work in Nantucket Island, Miami, Houston, and Manhattan and the types of design used in those cases. Mike Cavanaugh and Brett Farbstein are, respectively, the Directory of Sustainability and the Directory of Resiliency at CannonDesign. To learn more about the firm and the work that they do, visit www.cannondesign.com. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
Senior Sustainability Scientist Nancy Grimm, the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, was named a 2019 Fellow of the Society of Freshwater Science in honor of her outstanding contributions to stream and watershed science.
According to Grimm's biography on the Society of Freshwater Science fellows site, "Grimm studies urban and stream ecosystems. Initially working on stream nitrogen dynamics, she expanded out and down to riparian and hyporheic zones and then abruptly became an urban ecologist."
Extreme heat and how to cope with it are two major areas of interest in cities like Phoenix, Arizona. Recently, Maricopa County (where Phoenix is) partnered with a group of researchers at ASU to develop new technologies and solutions that are deployable in local communities to help reduce urban heat and improve air quality. This partnership illustrates that extreme heat and its adverse impacts on human health are highly important not only to researchers, but also to those responsible for implementing adaptation strategies. This month, Dr. Yeowon Kim interviews Mark Hartman, the Chief Sustainability Officer at City of Phoenix, Melissa Guardaro, a graduate fellow of UREx SRN, and Charles (Chuck) Redman, the founding director of School of Sustainability at Arizona State University and project director of UREx SRN, about their collaborative efforts on mitigating and adapting to adverse impacts of extreme heat in the metro urban area of Phoenix, Arizona.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
This month, Stephen Elser interviews UREx SRN fellow and ASU School of Sustainability PhD student, Yuliya Dzyuban, about her research involving extreme heat and the ways that people perceive and cope with that heat. They discuss the different aspects that affect one's thermal comfort, Ukrainian bus stops, and how there's a lot we can do to improve urban design in Phoenix. Yuliya shares her research illustrating that integrating artistic elements into bus stops can actually make people feel cooler than they would in a bus stop with no such elements. Finally, Yuliya becomes a poet and shares with us a beautiful haiku describing her research.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
In this episode, Dr. Yeowon Kim explains the difference between “fail-safe” and “safe-to-fail” infrastructure and how shifting towards this new “safe-to-fail" design paradigm could help cities prepare for extreme events like floods. Risks and uncertainty associated with climate change in the future make predicting infrastructure failures very difficult, so designing and implementing infrastructure to be more flexible in the face of uncertainty is highly important to deal with a wide variety of circumstances. Dr. Kim also talks about the “infrastructure trolley problem” and gives us a brief lesson on Korean poetry! If you have questions about Dr. Kim’s research, you can e-mail her at Yeowon.Kim@asu.edu.
The paper we discuss, entitled "Fail-safe and safe-to-fail adaptation: decision-making for urban flooding under climate change" was published in 2017 in the journal of Climatic Change.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
If it weren’t for the computer simulation game SimCity, Sean McElroy might never have discovered his passion for sustainable cities. As a high school student, McElroy designed a modern city using the game for a required personal project for the International Baccalaureate program.
“A lot of the research that I did was on future cities, which often brought up sustainability,” McElroy said. “I thought that the topic of sustainable cities and development sounded really interesting, and once I heard about it being a major it was an easy decision for me to choose it.”
This December, McElroy is graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor in sustainability from the School of Sustainability and a minor in urban planning from the School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning. During his time at ASU, McElroy has taken on leadership positions with the School of Sustainability Academy and the Honor Society for Sustainability. He also completed an internship with the Street Transportation Department at the City of Phoenix, and was a research aide working with ASU’s Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network.
The proposed addition to the US census of a question regarding the legal status of census respondents poses a major problem for both vulnerability researchers and the vulnerable undocumented immigrant community. Vulnerability scholar and PhD student, Jason Sauer, discusses how the change to the census may interfere with efforts to identify vulnerable communities, and may stymie efforts to make these undocumented communities more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. He also interviews Masavi Parea of Chispa, an organization advocating for resilience and environmental justice in Phoenix, about his own history as a formerly undocumented immigrant, the ways the undocumented community and Latinos are systematically made vulnerable, and what organizations like Chispa are doing to increase community resilience.
In this episode, UREx postdoctoral researcher, Sam Markolf, interviews Dr. Dan Eisenberg about resilience from an engineering perspective. When is being more robust the solution? When is flexibility preferred? Dan shares stories to illustrate when it may be advantageous to abandon standards of practice, how to deal with different types of surprises, and the differences between robust design and extensible design. They discuss the importance of designing infrastructure with human-technological interactions in mind.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.
UREx post-docs Bernice Rosenzweig and Marissa Matsler report from on-the-ground in Baltimore. Looking to learn more about how the Memorial Day Weekend extreme rain event affected he city, they interviewed Pastor Michael S. Martin of the Stillmeadow Evangelical Free Church, an emergency response hub in a community that was severely flooded. Hear about the emergency response and continuing concerns of those living the aftermath and remediation of the Memorial Day Weekend flood, along with discussion of overlaps with UREx research. See footage of the flood here: Baltimore City Frederick Ave Flash Flooding and learn more about Team Rubicon, a veterans group that plays a critical role in the response to extreme events. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.
The URExSRN is a research network of almost 300 practitioners, researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows working to integrate social, ecological, and technical systems toward the support of urban infrastructure in the midst of climate uncertainties. Network cities and partners participate and share in current research with early learning communities by providing relevant network learnings through K-12 outreach and professional development programs.
Two UREx members have embraced engaging future scientists by providing science curriculum relevant to the UREx mission through programs offered at Arizona State University. Read the exciting, first-hand experiences of graduate fellow, Stephen Elser and research collaborator, Amalia Handler:
Who does the United States public trust to help in its efforts to become more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change? A 2016 Pew Research Center survey revealed that 76 percent of citizens trust scientists “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to act in the public’s best interests, but only 27 percent report the same degrees of trust for their politicians and elected officials. Given these percentages, how does the public feel about the hybrid workers in government: the scientist civil servants staffing the federal agencies run by political appointees?
Since the civilian workforce of the federal government makes up over 99.7 percent of the total staff, leaving very few positions to be filled by political appointment, it turns out that the actual “doing” part of resilience policy and science is largely left to scientist civil servants. Who are these scientist civil servants, then? How do they straddle the line between resilience policy and science? And how does the public feel about what they do?
Who does the United States public trust to help in its efforts to become more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change? A 2016 Pew Research Center, survey revealed that 76% of citizens trust scientists “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to act in the public’s best interests, but only 27% report the same degrees of trust for their politicians and elected officials. Given these percentages, I wonder how the public feels about the hybrid workers in government: the scientist civil servants staffing the federal agencies run by political appointees. Since the civilian workforce of the federal government makes up over 99.7% of the total staff, leaving proportionally very few positions to be filled by political appointment, it turns out that the actual “doing” part of resilience policy and science is largely left to scientist civil servants. Who are these scientist civil servants, then? How do they straddle the line between resilience policy and science? And how would the public feel about what they do?
For one week in June of 2018, UREx SRN students convened at ASU’s Barrett and O’Connor Center to meet with some of these scientist civil servants, as well as with scientists working for the non-profit sector, as part of ASU’s Science Outside the Laboratory program on resilience policy and science. There, at the Center and at D.C. government agency buildings, SOtL program director Dr. Jennifer Brian and Dr. Matthew Harsh, as well as former program director Ira Bennett, arranged roundtable discussions about the duties involved in federal science positions, federal policies for building resilience to extreme weather events and climate change, and efforts toward developing trust and collaboration with the American public on these issues.
Students met early on with Advance Science Staff Lead, Dr. Jennifer Saleem Arrigo, at the US Global Change Research Program (GCRP), which is the charged with publishing the quadrennial National Climate Assessment. Students also met with the Director and Assistant Director of the Natural Resources and Environment Department, Frank Rusco and Joe Thompson respectively, at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which ensures the government is fulfilling its mandated duties like producing the Assessment. These civil servants talked about the importance of the Assessment for communicating to both policymakers and the public on consensus science on the threat and effects of climate change, even as receptiveness to this information has changed in recent years. Responses to student questions regarding speakers’ feelings on the impactfulness of their work, including changes in receptiveness, where emphasized as the normal ebb and flow of politics. The speakers viewed much of what they do as preparation for the opening of political windows of opportunity: that is, for the times when the public or congressional attention and will for action suddenly swell and crest, and it becomes possible to carry forward climate change resilience actions. I was impressed by how these scientists, with long careers in academia or in climate research, had become politically savvy in their roles without diluting the quality of their research or diverting from its intended purpose.
Students also met with scientists and an art director about the importance of visualization and interactivity for communicating the need for resilience strategies. Claudia Nierenberg and Stephen Zepecki spoke to us about NOAA’s role as both researchers as well as communicators to the public and political figures. Students were given a demonstration of the Science on the Sphere demonstration tool: a globe upon which model and satellite data can be projected, demonstrating to viewers various planetary processes ranging from atmospheric warming over the past century, hurricane formation and landfall events, and changes in oceanic currents. Nierenberg and Zepecki described the Sphere as being a particularly impactful tool for communicating the findings of NOAA, and for how our own resilience concerns in the US have parallels and connections to nations across the planet.
In a separate event at the National Building Museum, Curator Chrysanthe Broikos and students engaged in a discussion over a recent exhibit, Designing for Disaster. The exhibit exposed attendees in both the effects of natural disasters like wildfires and flooding, in the forms of faux-burned and faux-flood-damaged exhibit spaces. It also showed the effects of disaster resilience policy, in the forms of future building and infrastructure design. These forms of communication impressed me with literal flatness of much of the work that I do: most of it will be communicated via paper or screen, but might have more impact by the use of other mediums, in terms of quality and quantity. Also, seeing the connection between disaster effects, resilience policy, and design effects gave me some trust in the good intention of the scientists and agencies that pushed for policy change.
We also held roundtables with scientists involved in policy work in the non-governmental organization (NGO) world, discussing the ways that they partner with communities and sub-federal government to increase community resilience. Genevieve Maricle, the Global Knowledge and Innovation Lead at the World Wildlife Fund spoke about how cities and communities both in the US and abroad are mobilizing to implement the Paris Climate Agreement goals and UN Sustainable Development Goals in the absence of federal support. Jorge Ramos, manager of Conservation International’s Climate and Ocean division, spoke about work done on mangrove conservation partnerships with communities, and how such localized work can even be the ideal form of resilience work, both with and without the presence of federal support. Indeed, many students within the UREx SRN are involved in research that can increase the effectiveness and equity involved in community resilience efforts. With low trust in politics and federal agencies, and inconsistent financial support or vision from the elected heads of these groups, partnerships between concerned communities and NGO scientists that can support the technical and financial aspects of achieving their goals are increasingly necessary.
This post represents only a few of the great discussions and ideas that arose from this year’s Science Outside the Lab program. Additional speakers came from the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO); the American Meteorological Society; the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FEMA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In a closing feedback session, students offered that they were impressed with the genuine sense of duty that these scientist civil servants felt toward communication and community outreach in their work. My own strongest impression was how these scientists all strove in good faith to fulfill the obligations of their positions, regardless of pushback or frustration some felt during this and previous stages of the political cycle. Further, we all felt inspired seeing the results of the scientific research we do that is being translated into policy and action, and we came away with the understanding that as either future unaffiliated scientists or civil servants enacting science policy, we will have an impactful role to play in making more resilient communities, cities, and nations.
UREx La ciencia afuera del laboratorio (SOtL) - Verano de 2018
¿En quién confía el público de Estados Unidos para ayudar en los esfuerzos para ser más resilientes a los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y al cambio climático? Una encuesta del Centro de Investigación Pew en 2016 reveló que el 76% de los ciudadanos confían “mucho" o "regular" en que los científicos actúan en beneficio del público, pero solo el 27% reporta los mismos grados de confianza en sus políticos y funcionarios electos. Dados estos porcentajes, me pregunto cómo se siente el público acerca de los trabajadores híbridos en el gobierno: los científicos que trabajan como funcionarios en las agencias federales dirigidas por personas designadas por razones políticas. Dado que la fuerza laboral civil del gobierno federal representa más del 99.7% de la planilla total, dejando proporcionalmente muy pocos puestos a cubrir con designaciones políticas, resulta que la parte real de “ejecutar” relacionada con la política de la resiliencia y la ciencia queda en gran medida en manos de funcionarios científicos. ¿Quiénes son estos funcionarios científicos, entonces? ¿Cómo caminan la línea media entre la política de resiliencia y la ciencia? ¿Y cómo se sentiría el público acerca de lo que hacen?
Durante una semana en junio de 2018, los estudiantes UREx SRN se reunieron en el Centro Barrett y O'Connor de ASU para conocer a algunos de estos científicos que trabajan como funcionarios públicos, y conocer también a científicos que trabajan para el sector sin fines de lucro, como parte del programa La ciencia afuera del laboratorio de ASU que trata sobre la política de resiliencia y la ciencia. Allí, en el Centro y en los edificios de las agencias gubernamentales de D.C., la directora del programa de SOtL, la Dra. Jennifer Brian y el Dr. Matthew Harsh, así como el ex director del programa Ira Bennett, organizaron mesas redondas sobre los deberes relacionados con las posiciones científicas en el gobierno federal y las políticas federales para la construcción de resiliencia ante eventos climáticos extremos y el cambio climático, y los esfuerzos para desarrollar confianza y colaboración del público estadounidense sobre estos temas.
Los estudiantes se reunieron con la Dra. Jennifer Saleem Arrigo, Líder del Personal de Ciencias Avanzadas del Programa de Investigación en Cambio Global (GCRP), que está a cargo de la publicación de la Evaluación Nacional Climática cuadrienal. Los estudiantes también se reunieron con el Director y Subdirector del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente, Frank Rusco y Joe Thompson, respectivamente, en la Oficina de Rendición de Cuentas Gubernamentales (GAO), que garantiza que el gobierno esté cumpliendo con sus deberes obligatorios, como generar la Evaluación. Estos funcionarios hablaron sobre la importancia de la Evaluación para comunicar a los legisladores y al público sobre la ciencia consensuada en torno a la amenaza y los efectos del cambio climático, incluso a pesar de que la receptividad a esta información ha cambiado en los últimos años. Respuestas a las preguntas de los estudiantes sobre la opinión de los oradores en torno al impacto de su trabajo, incluidos los cambios en la receptividad, fueron enfatizados frente al vaivén normal político. Los oradores vieron gran parte de lo que hacen como una preparación para la apertura de ventanas de oportunidad política: es decir, para los momentos en que la atención y la voluntad públicas o del Congreso se intensifiquen repentinamente y sea posible llevar adelante acciones para lograr resiliencia al cambio climático. Me impresionó cómo estos científicos, con largas carreras académicas o de investigación climática, se han vuelto políticamente hábiles en sus roles sin diluir la calidad de su investigación y sin desviarse de sus propósitos previstos.
Los estudiantes también se reunieron con científicos y un director de arte para hablar sobre la importancia de la visualización y la interactividad para comunicar la necesidad de estrategias de resiliencia. Claudia Nierenberg y Stephen Zepecki nos hablaron sobre el papel de NOAA como investigadores y comunicadores ante el público y las figuras políticas. Los estudiantes recibieron una demostración de la herramienta de demostración Ciencia en la Esfera: un globo sobre el cual se pueden proyectar datos satelitales y de modelación, mostrando a los espectadores diversos procesos planetarios que van desde el calentamiento atmosférico durante el siglo pasado, la formación de huracanes y el efecto al tocar tierra, y cambios en las corrientes oceánicas. Ellos también describieron la Esfera como una herramienta particularmente impactante para comunicar los hallazgos de NOAA, y la forma cómo nuestras propias preocupaciones de resiliencia en Estados Unidos tienen paralelismos y conexiones con las naciones de todo el planeta.
En un evento separado en el Edificio del Museo Nacional, la curadora Chrysanthe Broikos y los estudiantes participaron en una discusión sobre una exhibición reciente, Diseñando para Desastres. La exhibición expuso a los asistentes tanto los efectos de los desastres naturales como los incendios forestales y las inundaciones, en forma de espacios de exhibición simulando estar quemados o inundados. También mostró los efectos de la política de resiliencia ante desastres, en la forma de diseños futuros de construcción e infraestructura. Estas formas de comunicación me impresionaron por el carácter plano de gran parte del trabajo que hago: la mayor parte se comunica a través de papel o pantalla, pero podría tener más impacto con el uso de otros medios, en términos de calidad y cantidad. Además, al ver la conexión entre los efectos de los desastres, la política de resiliencia y los efectos del diseño, pude confiar en la buena intención de los científicos y las agencias que impulsan el cambio de políticas.
También realizamos mesas redondas con científicos involucrados en el trabajo de políticas en el mundo de las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), discutiendo las formas en que se asocian con las comunidades y el gobierno sub federal para aumentar la resiliencia de la comunidad. Genevieve Maricle, Líder de Conocimiento e Innovación Global en World Wildlife Fund habló sobre cómo las ciudades y comunidades tanto en los Estados Unidos como en el exterior se están movilizando para implementar los objetivos del Acuerdo Climático de Paris y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sustentable de la ONU en ausencia de apoyo federal. Jorge Ramos, gerente de la División de Clima y Océanos de Conservation International, habló sobre el trabajo realizado con alianza con las comunidades para la conservación de manglares, y cómo ese trabajo localizado puede ser la forma ideal de trabajo de resiliencia, con y sin la presencia de apoyo federal. De hecho, muchos estudiantes dentro de UREx SRN están involucrados en investigaciones que pueden aumentar la efectividad y la equidad involucradas en los esfuerzos de resiliencia comunitaria. Con poca confianza en la política y las agencias federales, y ante el inconsistente apoyo financiero o de visión de los líderes electos de estos grupos, cada vez son más necesarias las alianzas entre comunidades interesadas y científicos de las ONG que pueden apoyar los aspectos técnicos y financieros para alcanzar las metas.
Esta publicación representa solo algunas de las grandes discusiones e ideas que surgieron del programa de La Ciencia afuera del laboratorio este año. Otros oradores adicionales representaron a organizaciones como el Consorcio para Ciencia, Política y Resultados (CSPO); la Sociedad Meteorológica de Estados Unidos; la Administración Federal de Seguros y Mitigación (FEMA), y el Sondeo Geológico de Estados Unidos (USGS). En una sesión de retroalimentación de cierre, los estudiantes dijeron que estaban impresionados con el sentido genuino del deber que estos funcionarios científicos sentían con respecto a la comunicación y la extensión comunitaria en su trabajo. Mi impresión más fuerte fue cómo todos estos científicos se esfuerzan de buena fe para cumplir con las obligaciones de sus posiciones, independientemente del retroceso o la frustración que algunos han sentido durante esta y las etapas anteriores del ciclo político. Además, todos nos sentimos inspirados por los resultados de las investigaciones científicas que hacemos y verlos traducidos en políticas y acciones, y llegamos a la conclusión de que, ya sea como futuros científicos no afiliados o funcionarios públicos promulgando políticas científicas, tendremos una función impactante para lograr comunidades, ciudades y naciones más resilientes.
In this episode, Stephen Elser sits down with Drs. Lauren McPhillips and Marissa Matsler to talk about their recent paper published in Frontiers in Built Environment entitled "Temporal Evolution of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Strategies in Three US Cities." We discuss the history of stormwater management in the U.S. and the rise of "green stormwater infrastructure" as a popular solution in cities across the country. The three cities compared here (Baltimore, Phoenix, and Portland) are vastly different from each other in terms of their history, culture, climate, and many other factors, which has led to unique patterns in their implementation of green stormwater infrastructure. Understanding these patterns of implementation allows us to better understand the suite of benefits that these features provide. We also hear haiku summaries of the paper!
If you have any questions about what you heard or have suggestions for future episodes, please e-mail us or find us on Twitter.
¿Te has preguntado si la ciudad en la que vives es realmente sustentable?, ¿Que tipo de paradigmas amenazan la resiliencia de nuestras ciudades a condiciones futuras?, ¿Podremos seguir aplicando las mismas filosofías de crecimiento y desarrollo en nuestras ciudades? En este programa el Profesor David Manuel Navarrete nos comenta sobre algunos puntos de reflexión acerca de la conceptualización de nuestras ciudades y viejos paradigmas ponen en riesgo elementos esenciales de una buena calidad de vida en ciudades y prevalencia de su equilibrio ante eventos extremos de clima. Nuevas maneras de pensar son necesarias para afrontar retos en nuestras ciudades.
¿Que son los eventos climáticos extremos?, el Dr. Agustín Robles, líder académico de la ciudad de Hermosillo en la Red de Resiliencia Urbana a Eventos Extremos (UREx) nos explica que son estos y por que es importante estudiarlos.
También en este episodio la Dra. Olga Barbosa nos explica que tipo de acciones y proyectos se llevan acabo en la red y como es que esta contribuye a mejorar nuestras ciudades. Pon mucha atención tal vez tu recuerdes tu experiencia durante un evento extremo como lo hace una profesionista, Fernanda Rodgriguez de Ciudad Obregón Sonora.
Si tiene preguntas o sugerencias para episodios futuros, envíenos un correo electrónico a futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com o encuéntrenos en Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.
The UREx SRN has been highlighted for its collaborative effort with The International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF) to support hurricane recovery in urban areas. This effort is focused on San Juan, Puerto Rico, a UREx SRN network city and one of the Caribbean islands still recovering from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
We hear the term used all over the place: in music, on TV, in books– but what IS resilience? In this episode, we discuss resilience from the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) perspective. To understand what
Over the past year, it has become even more apparent that climate change is not some future event, but rather, something we are currently experiencing. This has been demonstrated by yet another year of record temperatures and extreme weather events.
As UREx SRN researchers, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, David Iwaniec, Nancy Grimm, and Timon McPhearson, stated in their article on The Nature of Cities, the UREx SRN emerged out of the need for cities to become more resilient and adapt to our current climate. This blog entry reflects on the scenarios workshops, an important aspect of the project, which encourages out-of-the-box thinking while addressing immediate and future challenges.
In this special episode of the Future Cities podcast, a new type of knowledge is provided related to resilience. At the annual UREx SRN All Hands Meeting meeting held in late March, local Phoenix poets including Kimberly Koerth, Jacob Friedman, Rashaad Thomas, and Anna Flores read original poetry about Resilience, Equity, and Diversity (RED) in cities as part of the UREx La RED Poetry Event. The first half of the episode features the poems, the poets' inspirations, and what the poets hoped the audience would take away by listening to it. The second half of the episode features a discussion with several of the poets on the power of poetry as a tool for making our cities more resilient and equitable places to live.
If you have any questions about what you heard or have suggestions for future episodes, please e-mail us or find us on Twitter.
Both infrastructure disasters and infrastructure funding bills are back in the news, so Jason Sauer sat down with Dr. Sam Markolf to talk about a paper Sam published last year about disasters and better infrastructure design. We talk about how old infrastructure “locks us in” to living with its consequences and how it creates path dependencies in creating future forms and functions of cities. We end up talking a lot about Miami, but the lessons here also apply to cities across the US and around the world! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.
Senior Sustainability Scientist 
If it weren’t for the computer simulation game SimCity, Sean McElroy might never have discovered his passion for sustainable cities. As a high school student, McElroy designed a modern city using the game for a required personal project for the International Baccalaureate program.
Who does the United States public trust to help in its efforts to become more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change? A 
