The Climate Change Forum was a series of DVRPC workshops and webinars focusing on the intersection of climate change and city and regional planning. The series brought together professionals, advocates, and community members working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare the region for the impacts of climate change.
Local Climate Action and Energy Transition Planning - September 13th, 2022
This forum featured Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties and numerous municipalities who discussed how they are using their Climate Action and Energy Transition plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the local level.
Preparing the Electric Grid for a Changing Climate - July 14, 2020
This forum discussed investments being made by utilities to prepare their infrastructure for the threats of climate change, and the measures that institutions, including local governments, can take to protect their electricity supply.
Microgrids: Resilient Electricity for a Changing Climate - June 23, 2020
This forum explored the value of microgrids, combined heat and power (CHP), solar power, and other sources of electricity in assuring municipalities and institutions have reliable power, even when the grid is down. Panelists discussed the potential of microgrids to provide significant benefits in addition to a resilient electricity system.
Philadelphia Climate Change Resilience Initiatives - November 18, 2019
This forum looked at how the City of Philadelphia is working to understand, plan for, and adapt to the impacts of climate change, highlighting the opportunities and challenges posed by the nexus of climate change, environmental justice, economic development, equity, urban systems, and environmental health. It highlighted the ways in which the city is on the forefront of the Delaware Valley's efforts to strengthen resilience in the face of more frequent and more intense storms, floods, heat waves and extreme weather events. Multiple city departments discussed how they are working to operationalize resilience through outreach, plans, and projects, with an emphasis on how collaboration and education are needed to move past the status quo and effect meaningful change.
Floods, Roads, and Infrastructure: Payback, Planning and Protection - December 7, 2018
This forum looked at how coastal, riverine and stormwater flooding threaten the function and health of the overall roadway system, as a changing climate brings sea level rise and more intense rainfall events. It highlighted recent and ongoing research on how our roadway infrastructure is affected by flooding and climate change, and what tools are available to prioritize investments to protect it. The program featured research conducted on behalf of the Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania departments of transportation. Presenters talked about models to assess vulnerability, the payback on investments made to protect transportation infrastructure, lessons learned, existing data gaps, and plans for future research.
Climate Change and Flood Insurance - June 5, 2018
Flooding causes tremendous social and economic disruption to communities, and recovery can be very costly. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created in 1968 in to identify and reduce overall flood risk, and provide affordable flood insurance. Almost all municipalities in the region participate in the NFIP. However, due to catastrophic storms in recent years, such as hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Harvey, insurance claims have vastly outstripped the premiums collected by the NFIP. As a result, the program has borrowed almost $30 billion from the US Treasury that it cannot afford to repay. Furthermore, climate change is projected to increase flood risk, due to both sea level rise and more intense precipitation events. This forum explored the structure of the NFIP, and discussed policies to restructure the program to appropriately assign responsibility for risk, support vulnerable communities, and enhance long-term resiliency. While the tradeoffs are complex, they must be addressed, as the program continues to operate in a deficit and assets exposed to risk from flooding is only expected to grow.
The Game of Floods - March 2, 2018
Forum attendees played The Game of Floods, an interactive game-based exercise to better understand the process of conducting a vulnerability and risk assessment, and think about strategies to protect public assets from current and future flooding. Attendees progressed through a series of steps from climate science, to asset inventory, to vulnerability, risk, and adaptation planning. Using real-world examples selected for local governments, the game focused on the impacts of flooding on two sectors: transportation and stormwater management.
Preparing Transit Systems for Extreme Weather – October 23, 2017
Extreme weather events and other natural disasters threaten the operations and the capital assets of transit systems. Across the country, billions of dollars of transit assets—vehicles, track, equipment—have been destroyed by extreme weather events, halting service, sometimes for long periods of time. In a changing climate, the frequency and severity of these disruptions are expected to increase. Transit agencies can greatly reduce this cost and disruption by incorporating resilience into their systems. This forum focused on a recent study on how best to make transit systems resilient to extreme weather events. PATCO, NJ Transit, SEPTA, and Amtrak discussed their agencies' extreme weather resiliency and climate change adaptation activities.
Waterfront Development in a Changing Climate – June 20, 2017
A changing climate affects how professionals plan for and execute waterfront development. New threats include rising seas, heavier storms, stronger winds, and increased riverine flooding, in addition to more hot days, fewer days below freezing, and longer periods of drought. This event provided a forum for those who work on waterfront development to learn about and discuss threats and solutions.
Public Health and Climate Change – February 7, 2017
Co-hosted with DVRPC's Healthy Communities Task Force, this forum gathered planners and public health professionals to hear about the likely effects of climate change on public health, and steps being taken to prepare and adapt state and local health systems.
Forests, Urban Trees, and Climate Change – October 25, 2016
This forum provided forestry and urban tree professionals a better understanding of how trees in our region are expected to respond to the inevitable threats of climate change. Experts presented research on the health of current tree species and the selection of species in the future.