Several federal investments globally have raised high hopes among the general public and decision-makers, primarily to strengthen the infrastructure systems with a vision of adapting to climate change and promoting environmental justice. Several studies demonstrate that disadvantaged communities are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. Hence, an equitable adaptation framework to the growing risk of extreme events is critically needed but still missing in the literature before the national infrastructure investment can achieve its goals in terms of resilience and environmental justice. In this talk, Professor Farshid Vahedifard will demonstrate how to integrate engineering into a transdisciplinary platform for tackling grand challenges related to climate-resilient and equitable infrastructure, illustrating how this approach can be employed to quantify the effects of climate-adjusted flooding on the performance of earthen levees and a levee-protected electric power network with a case study in Northern California. With the understanding that levees form a critical component of the nation’s flood protection and water management system, he will highlight a methodological framework for incorporating environmental justice into climate adaptation planning of levees and levee-protected power grids. Coining a new equity metric with the vision that addressing environmental justice criteria warrants prioritizing disadvantaged communities in adaptation strategies to lower the flood risk in these communities.
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Speaker
Professor Farshid Vahedifard
Lead, Resilient and Equitable Infrastructure
