Hotter, Wetter, Wilder: A Climate Sustainability and Resilience Perspective for Coastal Maryland

Registration


Registration is closed

Over the next decade, nearly all the North American net population growth is expected to occur in urban areas, following a global trend of about 1.4 million people - double the population of Baltimore -added to cities each week. The urbanization trend puts tremendous pressure on infrastructure and assets clustered around existing waterfronts. Cities like Baltimore will face the effects of economic downturn in the shorter term. At the same time, coastal communities in Maryland will have to assess and adopt longer term sustainability and resilience programs to ensure livability for communities at the local level, while staying competitive at the regional and state level.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Introduce east coast coastal climate reality
  • Define a systems approach to risk evaluation and resilience improvements at the site specific and regional level, with an overview of national and global best practices
  • Collect information needed to understand costs and benefits over time
  • Discuss the integration of sustainability into your resilience initiatives

Jessica Francisco currently leads the Arcadis North America Sustainability practice. She has a wide range of experience leading business strategy, program and portfolio management, financial and risk assessment, and operations improvement for public and private sector clients. She supports clients throughout their sustainability journey from creating sustainability goals, to calculating and evaluating their environmental footprint, to designing and implementing strategies to help clients meet their sustainability goals, to helping them monitor and report their sustainability performance.

Edgar Westerhof is Arcadis’ Director for Flood Risk & Resilience with a focus on urban coastal and industrial flood proofing concepts, infrastructure planning, sustainable urban water management, waterfront revitalization as well as international water management concepts. Edgar is the contributing author and editor of the book Adapting Cities to Sea Level Rise (Island Press) and Blue Dunes (Columbia Press).