The Resilience Roundup highlights announcements and events along with links to the previous month's state, regional, and national resilience news.
|
|
Resilient Connecticut Updates |
|
Connecticut Summer Heat Wave Webinar:
Learning From Heat Sensor Research and Implications for Future Climate Extremes
Sept 27, 12 - 1:00 p.m.
Heat waves that CT residents experienced this summer are expected to become more frequent and severe, which can be dangerous to human health and require additional understanding and planning. As our summer season comes to a close, join this webinar to learn about: 1) CIRCA’s heat sensor summer research project, 2) how the City of Norwalk is taking steps to proactively address the threat of extreme heat waves, and 3) why zoning ordinances offer an opportunity to shape land use policy with the intent of creating communities more resilient to heat.
|
|
CIRCA Releases a New Product in the "Resilience White Paper Series:
Gaps and Opportunities for Local Resilience Planning in CT
As Connecticut is a home-rule state, there is significant planning authority at the local level. Municipalities develop a variety of plans to direct investments, development, and infrastructure to appropriate places on topics of land use, hazard mitigation, economic development, transportation, and more. CIRCA staff reviewed the regulations and practices governing these plans to identify gaps and opportunities for adaptation and resilience. Many of these planning processes are assumed to require climate change; however, they actually have limited requirements for how climate change is incorporated into the plans or rely on guidance documents (instead of legislation and regulation) to incorporate climate change.
By addressing these gaps, climate adaptation can be incorporated into planning processes where it makes sense and in a logical way. As a complement to adaptation projects focused on vulnerabilities in specific locations, creating a consistent planning practice that incorporates adaptation on an ongoing basis, will get us even closer to a Resilient Connecticut. Find out more in this new white paper:
|
|
Environmental Justice Data Fund
Applications Due: September 16, 2022
The Environmental Justice Data Fund (EJDF or “the Fund”) is an $8 million fund, created and seeded by Google.org, that aims to help frontline communities that have been historically underserved and disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental injustice. The Fund will enable frontline communities in the United States to use data to unlock resources, increase their access to federal infrastructure funding, and advocate for new policies that empower communities to address past environmental harm and pave the way to a more sustainable, climate-resilient future.
|
|
Connecticut DEEP Seeks Applicants for Electric Vehicle Funds
Proposals Due: September 30, 2022
Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is seeking grant proposals from municipalities, organizations, and businesses for electric vehicle supply equipment installation projects. Up to $4 million will be available for grants (funds come from the Volkswagen Settlement’s Environmental Mitigation Trust). The program will pay for up to 100% of the cost to purchase, install and maintain eligible light duty electric vehicle supply equipment that will be available to the public at a government-owned property.
|
|
NOAA Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grants
for Underserved Communities
Updated : October 5, 2022
Up to $10 million in funding is available for habitat restoration and resilience awards for underserved communities though NOAA’s FY2022 Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grants for Underserved Communities Notice of Funding Opportunity. Through this funding, NOAA will engage underserved communities in habitat restoration activities that promote resilient ecosystems and communities.
|
|
EBC 4th Annual New England Climate Change and Resiliency Summit
September 13, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Representatives from the six New England States will provide updates on their specific climate change plans, program priorities, and implementation strategies. The major focus will be on those key elements that are moving each state’s programs forward in preparation for the impacts of climate change.
|
|
Connecticut Association of Flood Managers:
Fairfield Wastewater Treatment Plant Hardening Project Tour
September 14, 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
CAFM is pleased to host Jonathan Richer, PE of Tighe & Bond and representatives from the Town of Fairfield for a Tour and Lunch & Learn event featuring the Fairfield Wastewater Treatment Plant Hardening Project. For more details, please download the Event Flier and Registration Form. (This event is worth 2.5 CM credits through APA and TBD credits for CFMs through ASFPM).
|
|
NE CASC Webinar - Buying Time with Runnels:
A Climate Adaptation Tool for Salt Marshes
September 14, 4:00 p.m.
Salt marshes across the Northeast are experiencing rapid expansion of interior shallow water areas that are "eating" marshes from the inside out. Runnels, or shallow channels created to drain impounded water, have recently been used by resource managers across the Northeast to restore tidal hydrology and vegetation in these areas. NE CASC presenters will discuss how runnels attempt to slow or reverse open water conversion in coastal marshes.
|
|
GC3 Working Group Meetings
Resilient Infrastructure & Nature-based Solutions GC3 Working Group Meeting
September 15, 2022, 11 am –12:30 pm
Public Health & Safety GC3 Working Group Meeting
September 19, 2022, 9:15 – 10:45 am
|
|
Hixon Center Urban Conference:
Cities as Solutions to Climate Change - Perspectives from IPCC Authors
September 23, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Join the 9th annual Hixon Center Urban Conference jointly convened by the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology and the Yale Planetary Solutions Project. The conference brings together researchers and practitioners focused on the potential impacts that cities have on climate change around the globe and features two vice-chairs and seven authors from the IPCC. The conference will be held in a hybrid format and is free and open to the public.
|
|
CAF Risks and Opportunity in Markets: Climate Change and the Housing Crisis
September 30, 9:00 a.m - 12:00 p.m.
The September Climate Adaptation Forum (CAF) will focus on the impacts of climate change on the U.S. housing market – including an increase in default rates, volatility of house prices, and abandonment of existing housing stock. The event will also address the role and the need for affordable, climate-resilient housing in all markets across the country. Both in-person and virtual registration is available.
|
|
Yale Center for Environmental Justice: Global Environmental Justice Conference
October 13 - 14
The Yale Center for Environmental Justice and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are partnering this year to present the Fourth Annual Global Environmental Justice Conference at the Yale School of the Environment. This year’s conference will focus on the intersection of equitable climate action and sustainable development. The hybrid conference will meet at the Yale School of the Environment and online through Cvent.
|
|
National Adaptation Forum
October 25 - 27
This year's Forum will be held in Baltimore, Maryland and gathers the adaptation community to foster knowledge exchange, innovation, and mutual support for a better tomorrow. Training sessions, symposiums, and webinars aim to be cross-sectoral to demonstrate the integrated nature of successful adaptation. Early bird registration ends September 2nd.
|
|
FACT SHEET: 10 Ways the Biden-Harris Administration Is Making America Resilient to Climate Change
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been clear that climate change is a crisis. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration is taking action to make communities across America more resilient to climate change, especially as millions of Americans live under heat advisories and communities across the country face flooding from a season’s worth of rain that falls in a matter of hours. President Biden’s National Climate Task Force has launched interagency efforts to build resilience to climate impacts, including extreme heat, wildfires, drought, flooding, coastal threats, financial risks, and more.
|
|
JGR Oceans Research Article: Contributions of Different Sea-Level Processes to High-Tide Flooding Along the U.S. Coastline
High-tide flooding (HTF) is one of the most obvious outcomes of climate change and associated sea-level rise. The increased HTF and the fact that more communities are affected by it, has raised public awareness. JGR Oceans researchers have developed a new database consisting of different sea-level components, representing different processes, and analyze their contribution to HTF. They find that ocean tides are the main driver for HTF along the U.S. west coast, while surges are relatively more important along the east coast.
|
|
First Street Foundation Study: Emerging “Extreme Heat Belt” Will Impact
Over 107 Million Americans by 2053
Fifty counties, home to 8.1 million U.S. residents, are expected to experience temperatures above 125°F in 2023, the highest level of the National Weather Services’ heat index, according to a peer-reviewed study by First Street Foundation. "By 2053,1,023 counties are expected to exceed this temperature, an area that is home to 107.6 million Americans and covers a quarter of the US land area," according to the Foundation.
|
|
Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Highway Resilience:
An Implementation Guide
NOAA Office of Coastal Management and the U.S. Department of Transportation have released "Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Highway Resilience: An Implementation Guide," which was developed to help transportation professionals understand how and where nature-based and/or hybrid solutions can be used to improve coastal road and bridge resilience. The guide offers potential flood-reduction benefits and guidance to determine site suitability for these solutions, along with considerations for engineering and ecological design, permitting, construction, and monitoring and maintenance.
|
|
New FEMA Webpage: Climate Resilience in Action
Every day communities across the country are working to address the effects of climate change. FEMA launched this new webpage Climate Resilience in Action to have a central focal point for different types of media stories about the effects of climate change. There are a series of best practice and video stories highlighting how communities are protecting their legacies, building back stronger and becoming climate resilient.
|
|
State and Regional News Clips |
|
New England's High Tides are Getting Higher. How 'Sunny Day' Flooding
Could Impact You.
The Providence Journal - August 5, 2022
New Englanders often associate flooding with storms, and rightfully so. But imagine sunny days with impassable roads, bubbling storm drains and basements-turned-swimming pools? Those scenarios will become much more common, like during a full moon or change in prevailing winds or currents, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
|
|
Murphy at Greenwich Roundtable: Billions from Inflation Reduction Act Will Make Big ‘Impact on Shorelines’
Greenwich Time - August 9, 2022
Fresh from the triumph of the Senate approval of the Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy came to Greenwich for a roundtable discussion on how that money could be used to shore up the local coastline. The meeting included representatives from state and local government as well as CIRCA, Save the Sound, the Maritime Aquarium, SoundWaters and the Bruce’s Seaside Center.
|
|
CT is Falling Behind on Its Climate Change Goals.
What’s Being Done to Change That?
CT Mirror - August 11, 2022
As worldwide heat, drought and extreme storms this summer punctuate the reality of climate change, Connecticut continues to wrestle with its reality that it is falling behind on its goals to reduce the carbon emissions responsible for global warming. The state has also long been out of compliance with national ambient air quality standards for the pollutants that result in the high ozone levels we consistently record here.
|
|
How Will the Inflation Reduction Act Benefit Connecticut?
Green-Energy Industry Could See a Boost
Stamford Advocate - August 12, 2022
As the U.S. House of Representatives debates the Inflation Reduction Act, a number of Connecticut employers could see their prospects accelerate if the bill becomes law — particularly those with systems to generate clean electricity or store it, with the possibility of $370 billion up for grabs. The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to boost a number of incentives for clean energy, including in the solar industry.
|
|
New Sensors Measure Just How Hot it Feels in Danbury -
And the Data Could be Valuable
Newstimes - August 27, 2022
New sensors, designed to gauge how hot the city feels for the people who live in it, have been installed near public housing complexes in Danbury. Danbury’s department of emergency management — which collaborated with CIRCA on the installation and research — will use the data from the heat sensors to determine where to open cooling shelters for residents, and also to influence whether future construction projects in the city should use different materials that do not emit as much heat in the surrounding environment.
|
|
Maps Show Climate Change's Neighborhood Impacts
New Haven Independent - September 6, 2022
As climate change progresses, conditions will become the new normal for New Haven, especially for the heat- and flood-vulnerable neighborhood of Fair Haven, reported officials tracking the trends. But, the officials said, the city can adapt its current infrastructure and prevent carbon emissions from making the problem worse. CIRCA climate researchers shared those findings to the Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy committee this past Thursday evening, as city leaders prepare to mitigate and adapt to rising sea levels, worsening storms, and climbing global temperatures.
|
|
VP Kamala Harris Announces $1B to States for Floods, Extreme Heat
CBS Miami - August 1, 2022
Vice President Kamala Harris was in South Florida, making a stop at FIU to announce the White House will be putting more than $1 billion towards extreme heat and flooding. It's part of their Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities or BRIC program, and is in addition to the $2.3 billion grant President Joe Biden announced last month.
|
|
Mapped: How Climate Change Affects Extreme Weather Around The World
CarbonBrief - August 4, 2022
Scientists have published more than 400 peer-reviewed studies looking at weather extremes around the world, from wildfires in the US and heatwaves in India and Pakistan to typhoons in Asia and record-breaking rainfall in the UK. The result is mounting evidence that human activity is raising the risk of some types of extreme weather, especially those linked to heat.
|
|
4 Takeaways from the First Climate Bill Passed by the Senate
The Hill - August 8, 2022
The largest single investment from the U.S. government toward tackling climate change is now on its way to the House of Representatives. During a long, late-night vote on Sunday, Senate Democrats passed The Inflation Reduction Act, a 755-page-long package that included sweeping tax, health care and climate change legislation.
|
|
Too Little, Too Late for People Seeking Climate Relief
The Center for Public Integrity - August 10, 2022
For decades, FEMA has funded voluntary buyouts under its “hazard mitigation” programs that support disaster preparedness initiatives. But the federal agency did not design its flood programs with mounting climate disasters in mind. As millions of Americans discover that they must relocate because of rising sea levels, flooding rivers and intense storms, the mismatch between the buyout process and the need is going to get worse.
|
|
Arctic Warming Is Happening Faster Than Described, Analysis Shows
New York Times - August 11, 2022
The rapid warming of the Arctic, a definitive sign of climate change, is occurring even faster than previously described, researchers in Finland said. Over the past four decades the region has been heating up four times faster than the global average, not the two to three times that has commonly been reported.
|
|
Biden Signs Sweeping Climate, Health Care, Tax Bill Into Law
NPR - August 16, 2022
President Biden signed Democrats' hallmark spending bill into law , a major legislative victory punctuating a string of bipartisan legislative achievements that Democrats hope to capitalize on ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. The sweeping bill allocates more than $300 billion to be invested in energy and climate reform. It's the largest federal clean energy investment in U.S. history.
|
|
We Talk About Heat Waves in a Weird Way
Vox - August 17, 2022
Natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are (rightly) accompanied by warnings of their danger. They bring a visible, elemental fury that’s hard to ignore. Heat, on the other hand, is invisible and insidious. We feel it on our skin, radiating from the sun or bouncing off asphalt and concrete, but we don’t see it the way we see, say, floodwaters carrying cars down the street. That makes heat waves easy to dismiss as quirky summer weather.
|
|
Several States Will Follow California’s Lead in Banning Gas-powered
Car Sales by 2035
The Hill - August 30, 2022
In the wake of California announcing last week that it will ban sales of all gas-powered cars by 2035, several states have announced similar plans. The Clean Air Act grants California the ability to impose emissions standards on new vehicles that are stricter than those at the national level and which other states can then follow. As long as states’ standards are identical to California’s they are permitted to adopt them without government approval.
|
|
The Resilience Roundup highlights CIRCA's presence in the news, provides links to recent local/state/national news articles related to resilience and adaptation, and announces upcoming events and seminars.
The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation's (CIRCA) mission is to increase the resilience and sustainability of vulnerable communities along Connecticut's coast and inland waterways to the growing impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the natural, built, and human environment. The institute is located at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus and includes faculty from across the university. CIRCA is a partnership between UConn and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP).
|
|
State and Regional News Clips |
|
|
|
|
|
|
