Research Focus - Urban climate change impacts related to infrastructure
Our research focus includes identifying and developing solutions to the many complex and interrelated issues that need to be considered when looking at what impacts climate change will have on a city and what adaptation actions are needed. Some of these are listed briefly below.
Sea level rise/intermediate size cities
- Coastal zone and watershed flooding: Retreat vs defend vs do nothing
- Impact on urban infrastructure—drainage and watershed management, water and sewage, energy, built, transport and telecom, services (especially food, education, recreation, tourism,); and especially on linked networks, cascading failure potential
- Technological cost and risk
- Equity implications of each option—who is obligated to pay, what is the cost, and who is likely to pay given the power differentials
Climate extremes
- Drought-driven wildfires and downwind transport of particles, ground-level ozone, CO, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons affect urban populations
- Temperature, prolonged heat island effects
- Technological: energy, materials, land use implications of greater T range
- Equity implications —impact and cost on old, young, sick
Extreme weather events
- Impact on cities include heat waves (heat stroke, dehydration, exhaustion, cardiovascular disease and mortality) and air quality (photochemical smog)
- Warning systems
- Flooding driving rodents into high density habitations, impacts on sanitation and water systems and public health
- Winds and wind loads
- Urban and Building Design
- Storms and Infrastructure, especially transport in ice-snow storms, fog and effects on vehicles and people, including aircraft
- Insurance
- Preventive measures
Disease vectors
- Impact on urban populations and public health care cost and systems (aeroallegens from weeds, pollens, moulds) combined with diesel particles affect respiratory disease, insurance…)
- New insect-borne and emerging infectious diseases, especially mosquitos, and avian-mosquito interactions
- Mobility and density/transmission belts
- Urban form
Social Impacts
- Wealth distribution impacts over time due to changes in asset values
- Income and household expenditure impacts
- Geographical and social zones in urban areas by relative vulnerability, and percentage of infrastructure, area, and population, at risk
- Adaptive capacity by zone, income, maturity of infrastructure
- In-out migration flows
- Policing and security
