Spring 2023 - 60310 - PA 388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

PLANNING FOR DISASTER RESILIENT CITIES

In 2022, the IPCC issued its 6th Assessment Report that led the United Nations to declare humanity was facing a code red climate emergency.  Too little is being done, too late.  According to the last IPCC assessment, despite 25 plus UN climate conferences with stated NDAs among nations of the world, we’re simply not getting climate mitigation done fast enough.  More recent data suggests that we are on track to not only surpass 1.5 degree Celsius by 2100, but rather 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius (if drastic action is not taken right now).  

The global consequences of such changes will be dire: large scale climate migration, famine, accelerated sea level rise, extended droughts, large areas of the globe (estimated at 12 – 18%) unsafe for human habitation due to heat and humidity creating unlivable heat index scores, intensifying floods and hurricanes/cyclones, ecosystem collapse in many ecozones, and mass extinctions in the oceans and large-scale extinctions on land.  These large-scale environmental system changes will be largely irreversible for centuries based on current model estimates, and the consequences of such system failures on human well-being will be catastrophic by most estimates.

This seminar will focus on what city-regions can do right now to begin reigning in the most significant aspects of our unfolding superordinate climate disaster.  To make significant head way– the top 20 emitter nations must take drastic action on urbanization processes within their borders using the full array of GHG reduction tools right now.  We will study and evaluate the most promising mitigation and adaptation options currently available and possibly available shortly as part of emerging technology.

The course is divided into 4 parts.  Part 1 reviews theories of sustainable climate development, resilience theory, and social-ecological frameworks to guide our collective learning efforts. In Part 2 we look at ways to measure and predict climate impacts focusing on data sources and models for temperature change, precipitation, sea level rise, climate migration, hazard events (flooding, wildfire, hurricane/cyclone, and drought), climate vulnerability, and public service – infrastructure systems.  In Part 3 – we will look at best practices for climate mitigation (reducing GHG emissions) and adaptation solutions.  In part 4 we will look at a specific Central Texas climate resilience challenge working with either the City of Austin or Travis County to devise solutions.

Grading

This is a true graduate seminar, students should have completed the readings for each class day and be prepared to discuss in class.  Class participation will be 20% of the course grade.   Each student will be responsible for researching and writing up a brief summary of one climate mitigation and one climate adaptation policy, design or planning approach to share in class collectively.   We will collaboratively devise a template for the assignment. Each summary is worth 30% of the course grade.  The final assignment will be your suggested solutions for the local climate impact challenge, this can be a rudimentary design, plan or PowerPoint brief (20% of course grade). A city of Austin or Travis County official will attend the final session to provide feedback on your suggestions.

Readings

All readings will be posted on canvas.  There is no course textbook.

 

Electives
Instruction Mode
inperson