Committee on the Environment

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Fourth National Adaptation Forum in Madison Wisconsin this past April. This biennial event brings together a wide range of people all focused on climate adaptation in the United States. There were climate adaptation specialists from the public sector at the federal, state and local levels; experts on agriculture, forestry, sea-level rise and food security; city planner and neighborhood group leaders who are addressing climate adaptation in their communities, and a diverse range of consultants and engineers. What there weren’t from what I could tell were any other architects.  I think I was the only one there! I found that to be pretty amazing but also fairly wonderful – I was like a kid in a climate adaptation candy shop. I’ve been focused on the role of the design professional in addressing climate adaptation for several years and there was so much to learn from this assembly of knowledgeable people. 

Here are my top five takeaways for all architects:

1. There’s a lot of great climate adaptation activity going on across the country addressing climate adaptation particularly at the city and regional scales. Not just talk but action. This isn’t limited to the coasts but happening in all parts of the country.
2. The access to regional high quality climate science expertise is growing through “boundary organizations”. In addition to national websites such as the wonderful U.S. Climate Resilience toolkit, Climate Adaptation Science Centers in most parts of the US provide locally available climate modeling expertise through the USGS. NOAA’s RISAs (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments)  work with regional public and private communities to provide advance understanding of climate and risk.   
3. Downscaling – or understanding climate projection data at a localized scale – is a critical approach to really understand potential climate impacts of any projects expected to last more than a few years. But despite the availability of some readily accessible downscaling tools (such as NOAA’s Climate Explorer or  Weathershift ) according to some climate scientists,  downscaling should be done in conjunction with regional specialists who can provide the best data for teams to work with based on the specific site and program. Did you know that there are 42 global climate models, 32 downscaling technologies, 3 projection scenarios plus, or course, seasonal variations. According to one workshop, that’s way too much variability for us to rely on national downscaling resources. 
4. The climate adaptation community is very aware of the much greater vulnerability for underserved communities due to climate change – the new-to-me term used was “frontline communities”. We heard about locally based climate adaptation efforts from community leaders on the Gulf, both coasts, and youth working in underserved urban areas. One of the key messages was that these efforts must be community based, not government led with community outreach. Community members must lead, be supported by climate and other experts, and be compensated for their participation. This will have the double benefit of better serving the community and creating a generation of local people who are fully engaged and informed about near and long-term climate adaptation efforts. 
5. Architects can learn a lot from those in other industries who have been working on climate adaptation at different sectors and scales for a long time. There are two related strategies that are getting attention and worth our consideration:
1. Adaptation Pathways: This takes design thinking to the next level where flexibility pathways are built into the longterm implementation of a project based on analysis of what problems might occur if the climate changes in different ways. 
2. Deep Uncertainty Decision Making: This approach accepts that under conditions of deep uncertainty, like climate change, predictions are often wrong and relying on them can be dangerous. New methods and processes are underway to help decision makers identify and evaluate robust and adaptive strategies to make sound decisions. My favorite quote from the conference “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd one” by Voltaire

There’s much more to share (and please feel free to reach out if you’re interested (mary.ann.lazarus@gmail.com). But I hope that this will motivate many more architects to show up for the next Forum in 2021.  I don’t want to be the only architect there next time!