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Preparing Infrastructure for Climate Change

Newswise — Mikhail (Mike) Chester is an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Chester studies the effects of climate change on infrastructure and how infrastructure should be designed for more frequent and intense extreme events. He has recently completed studies on the effects of climate change on U.S. power (including the effects on generation, transmission, and demand), water, and transportation systems. His work shows how traditional risk based design may be insufficient in a future with climate change, and extreme events are likely to affect both the structure and function of infrastructure systems. Chester was recently featured in a  stating that infrastructure design needs to take into account future climate change.

Chester can talk about:

• Future stresses put on the U.S. energy grid due to climate change.
• The relationship between warming temperatures and energy demand.
• Development of resilient infrastructure.
• How infrastructure design needs to take into account future climate change.

The keeper of the world’s weather extremes

Randy Cerveny is the keeper of the world’s weather extremes. As chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for World Meteorological Organization, Cerveny (also an Arizona State University President’s professor of geographical science and urban planning) is responsible for researching, verifying and archiving global weather records. He has written two books on weather, Freaks of the Storm and Weather’s Greatest Mysteries Solved!

Cerveny can talk about:

Recorded weather extremes generally, including those related to heat, cold, wind, rainfall, lightning, tidal waves, etc.

• The deadliest storms on Earth.
• The importance of keeping weather records.
• What these records tell us about the Earth.
• Why it is important to track records of weather phenomena across the globe.

 Contact [email protected] to speak with Chester or Cerveny.