April 2018

Climate-Safe Infrastructure: Building Resilience to Climate Change

When California invests public funds into infrastructure, we make a compact with the public that those projects, from bridges to schools to levees, will fulfill critical economic and public well-being needs over decades. Climate change threatens this compact by introducing change and uncertainty to the baselines these projects are designed to endure.  Extreme events such…

Climate Resilience Starts at Home

Californians have suffered a devastating year of climate change impacts, ranging from wildfires to deadly heat waves.  In communities where extreme heat is becoming the norm, rising energy costs threaten the health of children and seniors as families struggle to pay their utility bills.  Low-income Californians pay the highest percentage of their income on energy…

Climate change is here. Is California’s infrastructure ready for more weather extremes?

This past year has been one of extremes in California. In 2017, we experienced all-time temperature highs (statewide and regionally), a deadly heat wave, the most destructive and lethal wildfires in the state’s history, and the second wettest winter on record following a historic five year drought. The impacts have been staggering: many lives lost, thousands of properties destroyed, and costly infrastructure…

How to Use Systems Thinking to Solve Tough Resilience Problems and Get Stuff Done

The challenges government is tasked with solving have always been messy. With the explosion of big data and “smart” technologies, it seems to get messier every day. On the one hand, big data and new technologies are breaking down traditional government silos. But on the other hand, they have also illuminated the enormous complexity of…