Alex was in New York for meeting of the Municipal Art Society about preparing the city for future emergencies like Hurricane Sandy. Here’s an excellent summary by Dan Miner, who blogs at BeyondOilNYC. The historical data is showing huge increases in intense storm events, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. With our
Oak Park to Demonstrate Resilience With Smart Grid
A recent story on Grist.org describes how the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois is embarking on a far-reaching program to demonstrate a resilient power grid using smart-grid technology. With support from the Korea Smart Grid Institute, which carried out a similar demonstration on Jeju Island off South Korea, and
Alex presenting at an all-day workshop on resilient design in Boston
I’m one of four presenters at an all-day workshop, “Skills for Building Resilient Communities,” on Tuesday, March 5th, immediately preceding the NESEA Building Energy Conference in Boston. The other presenters are architect Dan Watson, FAIA (author of the recently published book, Design for Flooding: Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design for
Making Los Angeles Resilient
Lisa Novick has a very good blog on what Los Angeles should do to boost it’s resilience on the Huff Post Los Angeles. The blog includes a nice definition of resilience: “Resilience is defined as the capacity of a system to absorb shock and still maintain its identity and function.
Re-imagining Manhattan
You might have missed this in your holiday busy-ness, as we did: In December, Atlantic Cities reported on a project by a team of architect and planners from the University of Michigan to rethink Manhattan in the light of the clear danger of damage from future versions of Hurricane Sandy: From
Artificial reefs for tsunami protection
In Sumatra, new methods are under development to protect cities from tsunamis: “It uses the concept of cathode accretion–putting a small electrical charge in the water that draws calcium carbonate (the stuff reefs are made of) out of solution and onto an iron-based skeleton. The calcium slowly accumulates, creating an
Facing extended drought, Texas policy makers focus on water planning
Stunted corn due to extended drought. Photo: Tim McCabe, National Resources Conservation Service An article in today’s New York Times paints a surprising picture of bipartisan support for planning in Texas–a state known for neither planning nor bipartisanship. With a two-year drought continuing and being called the third-worst in the
Why the Dutch Can Implement Flood-Control Measures
There’s a fascinating article in today’s online issue of The Atlantic Cities: “We’re In This Together: What the Dutch Know About Flooding That We Don’t. The short article explores why residents of The Netherlands can pull together to put in place flood-control measures, even if they cost a lot of
2012 Temperatures – One For the Record Books
For those who have made a habit of following temperature records over the past few decades, what’s most surprising with today’s news isn’t that 2012 set a record for U.S. temperatures (that had been expected for months), but rather the extent of that record. If you go back to the
Alex speaking at the Sustainable Cities Roundtable – Kirkland, WA
Alex will be presenting (via teleconference) at the Sustainable Cities Roundtable this Thursday, January 10th, from 12:00 noon to 1:30 Pacific Time, in Kirkland, Washington. From the website: King County GreenTools has pulled together an exciting lineup to launch the 2013 Sustainable Cities Roundtable Series theme: “Beyond Net Zero: Resilience,
RDI’s Alex Wilson interviewed by Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune’s Mary Umberger spoke with RDI’s Alex Wilson about how builders can make homes much more disaster resistant — and how his thinking shifted from “passive survivability” to “resilience.” Generally, I think the building industry is starting to pay attention. It’s a tricky issue for builders, because it
Presentation in NYC on January 22nd
I’ll be speaking at a Green Drinks SPARK event Tuesday evening, January 22nd at The Moderns near Union Square in New York City. The topic will be “Resilient Design: The New Imperative.” Green Drinks SPARK is a networking event, so there will be plenty of time for conversations over drinks
RDI Advisory Board member David Orr was quoted recently in the New York Times on the topic of ergonomic seating in school classroooms. While classroom chairs may not represent mainstream resilient design, it’s a good example of the need to rethink how everything is designed in response to the challenges
Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and the Need For Resilience in the Western U.S.
The January, 2013 issue of Land Lines, a publication of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, has an excellent article on climate change impacts in the Intermountain West and the need for resilience. “Uncertainty and Risk: Building a Resilient West” addresses drought, growing incidence of wildfire, population growth, and factors
Biomimicry and Resilience
There was a great online article in the New York Times yesterday (1/4/13), “Will Biomimicry Offer a Way Forward, Post-Sandy?” about the relationship between resilience and biomimicry. This is an issue I’ve thought about quite a bit recently: the idea that nature can provide models of how to incorporate resilience