Advances in Understanding Coastal Resilience Featuring Women in Disaster Resilience Research
3:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., December 3, 2015, Cafe X in Kelly Hall
Climate of Change: Challenges and Adaptation to Accumulating Disasters (3:30 – 4:30)
Dr. Julie K. Maldonado, Department of Environmental Studies, UC-Santa Barbara
This presentation will consider the intersection of climate change, disasters, and displacement, showing how social, environmental, and climate justice are intimately interlinked. In doing so, it will highlight three tribes in coastal Louisiana who have been hit by both the underlying drivers and causes of climate change, and the outcomes. While this discussion will cover the layers of disasters, vulnerabilities, and cascading effects, it will also highlight what communities are actively doing to adapt, challenge, and resist social and environmental injustice. The presentation will demonstrate that these are not scenarios that will occur in a distant future, in a distant place; this is the reality we are facing right now.
Research and Development in Coastal System Resilience (4:30-5:30)
Dr. Julie Rosati, Research Coastal Engineer, US Army Corps of Engineers
Being resilient – the capacity to prepare in advance of a short or long-term disturbance, being able to resist or absorb damages during the crisis and recover rapidly, and adapt in preparation for future unknown stress – has recently emerged as the means to better achieve the necessary functioning of a system, given an uncertain future. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) initiated new R&D to quantify coastal system resilience from project to regional scales. This presentation will discuss how this R&D program supports the range of USACE missions; it will introduce resilience concepts and then range of work by others within the field of resilience, and it will conclude with a summary of ongoing research in coastal system resilience.
11 March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami: Some Lessions Learned (5:30-6:30)
Dr. Joanne Bourgeois, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
The most tsunami-prepared country in the world was hit by a major earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Yet, there were more casualties and damage than anticipated. What were Japan’s anticipations and preparations? What works and what did not? Because historical records are typically shorter than recurrance intervals for the largest earthquakes and tsunamis, scientists have begun systematic studies of paleoseismology and tsunami geology. Field trips a year before this devastating event focused on elucidating from the prehistoric geological record what was known of past events in the region, and on different means by which the population was prepared. Lessons learned from events like Tohoku carry over into populations living with and potentionally surviving many natural hazards.
For the full Symposium flyer, click here: 2015_Resilience_Symposium_FINAL