Climate change exacerbates natural disasters and existing chronic stressors within our communities. As global weather patterns continue to change and trigger more extreme events, we’re taking these risks seriously. We’re researching, developing, and adapting strategies to increase the resilience of our buildings and our communities so that—even in the face of acute and chronic events—they can survive, recover, grow, and flourish.
The goal of this research project was to evaluate the relationship between resilient design strategies and their impact on the mental health of building occupants during a crisis event. We hypothesized that certain resilient design strategies were better suited to mitigate the negative effects on mental health, and, through analysis of this potential, be ranked... Read more »
Jon Penndorf will be part of a panel in April 2016 in Washington, DC on sustainability and resilience.
Steven Velegrinis will speak in Dubai, UAE about designing to deal with the reality of climate change in the Gulf.
Primary Protection: Enhancing Health Care Resilience for a Changing Climate, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2014. The report is a Best Practices document under the HHS Sustainable and Climate Resilient Health Care Facilities Initiative.
Climate change adaptation means being prepared for a changing climate by taking action today to reduce the potential impacts of climate change to people, buildings, and infrastructure. While the District does its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is already seeing the impacts of climate change due to historic carbon emissions. Climate Ready DC is... Read more »
This article proposes a new urban ecological paradigm that values urban wastewater as a renewable, reliable, freshwater resource for urban farming. The potential benefits of time-tested solutions applied in urban settings have been largely unexplored due to lack of societal acceptance. The research presented herein investigates various aspects of closed-loop systems that localize wastewater treatment... Read more »
As the Earth’s climate changes and sea waters rise, the world’s many coastal cities must get creative to stay afloat. Levees, floodwalls, and other man-made infrastructure are enormous cost burdens that continue to be overpowered by super storms and severe flooding. Planners and designers around the country are exploring methods to make coastal cities more resilient to these... Read more »
Increasing occurrences of natural disasters and effects of climate change are creating more pressure to design resilient buildings that can withstand and adapt to changing risks, while being sustainable and creating healthy environments. A key challenge to the implementation of resilient design is perceived viability and how to incorporate and communicate the long-term benefits into the equation. This project,... Read more »
