Re-imagining Manhattan
You might have missed this in your holiday busy-ness, as we did: In December, Atlantic Cities reported on a project by a team of architect and planners from the University of Michigan to rethink Manhattan in the light of the clear danger of damage from future versions of Hurricane Sandy: From the edges to the center of the island, the Michigan team’s concept plan alternates marshes, tidal defense berms, floating neighborhoods, hydroponic farms and new parks to protect against flooding. It also retrofits flood plains with a new datum above the water line for service, emergency and power...
Read MoreFacing extended drought, Texas policy makers focus on water planning
An article in today’s New York Times paints a surprising picture of bipartisan support for planning in Texas–a state known for neither planning nor bipartisanship. With a two-year drought continuing and being called the third-worst in the state’s history (the worst was in the 1950s), there is interest in tapping the $2 billion rainy day fund to address infrastructure improvements to grapple with water shortages. Currently, according to the article, “As Texas Bakes in a Long Drought, Water Becomes a Focus for Legislators,” there are eighteen public water system...
Read MoreWhy the Dutch Can Implement Flood-Control Measures
There’s a fascinating article in today’s online issue of The Atlantic Cities: “We’re In This Together: What the Dutch Know About Flooding That We Don’t. The short article explores why residents of The Netherlands can pull together to put in place flood-control measures, even if they cost a lot of money. In The Netherlands (Holland), a flooding event is nearly universal–nearly everyone is affected by it, so everybody knows that they have to deal with control measures. In the U.S., by contrast, a flood affecting New Orleans or coastal New Jersey won’t...
Read More2012 Temperatures – One For the Record Books
For those who have made a habit of following temperature records over the past few decades, what’s most surprising with today’s news isn’t that 2012 set a record for U.S. temperatures (that had been expected for months), but rather the extent of that record. If you go back to the beginning of systematic record-keeping for the lower-48 states in 1895 until last year, the difference between the record-low (1917) and the record-high (1998) was 4.2°F. That temperature span jumped a full degree Fahrenheit with the 2012 record temperature. The average temperature in the contiguous U.S. in 2012 was...
Read MoreVulnerabilities to Climate Change and the Need For Resilience in the Western U.S.
The January, 2013 issue of Land Lines, a publication of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, has an excellent article on climate change impacts in the Intermountain West and the need for resilience. “Uncertainty and Risk: Building a Resilient West” addresses drought, growing incidence of wildfire, population growth, and factors that have increased vulnerability. While short on practical strategies for enhancing resilience, the lengthy article provides excellent background information on this eight-state region (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New...
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