Volume IX, No. 10-12 Fourth Quarter 2015 Local Governments put U.S. Local Government Market for Adaptation on Their (Long) Climate Resilience Consulting To-do Lists While most projects are still small, the local government market for climate “Resilience” is the word, as foundations, resilience and adaptation services is evolving rapidly. Larger consulting projects can NGOs and federal agencies provide exceed $500,000, and hundreds of millions are going to food protection projects assistance and funding and new risk in vulnerable regions, especially New York. Active frms typically report fve to 10 drivers for public and private property FTEs engaged in U.S. climate resilience work. Changing analyses of food risks and owners emerge risk-based valuations of coastal property are expected to drive new investment.

itigating risks and managing Profle: Moffatt & Nichol takes leads in CA coastal resilience 8 potential hazards are some of NGOs, foundations and federal agencies provide funding for resilience 10 the most important functions Mof local governments and public infra- Living shorelines provide erosion control and shoreline stabilization 13 structure and resource managers. Climate Green infrastructure increases in popularity as stormwater management tool 17 change is already starting to amplify the The Nature Conservancy partners with frms to advance resilience measures 20 weather-related risks and hazards they and their communities face, and the pro- Profle: Arup improves resilience for NY and other coastal cities 23 jected impacts over the coming decades Profle: Dewberry takes on sea level rise 26 are truly ominous. Profle: Milone & MacBroom provides climate risk assessments and resilience But it’s inherently difcult for elected planning for coastal Northeastern communities 29 and appointed ofcials to invest now to prepare for risks that are uncertain and Profle: Stanley Consultants focuses on food mitigation 31 years or decades away. Without an obvious AquaFence gains traction in food product market 32 beneft, most of their constituents would Q&A: David Ford Consulting Engineers 34 rather not pay more taxes or higher rates for big upgrades to their infrastructure and measures. Changing federal and state in resilience is in planning, design and en- or public amenities. And lacking federal policies and incentives are in some cases gineering that will allow communities to money for infrastructure, local govern- pushing local governments to incorpo- withstand and continue functioning dur- ments are already hard pressed to keep up rate climate impacts like sea level rise in ing fooding, droughts and other extreme with existing needs. planning, while new opportunities to price weather events. climate risk into private property valua- “A reality for most elected ofcials “If you want to maintain a shoreline tion may be emerging. is that we live in a world that is highly neighborhood that’s already food prone reactive and not highly strategic,” said In many cases, “climate change” is not and increasingly at risk from sea level rise, Linda Langston, a county supervisor of highlighted in RFPs or new program you can become more resilient through Linn County, Iowa, and chair of the Na- announcements. Instead, the broader measures such as elevating homes, tional Association of Counties’ Resilient concept of resilience—one more readily improving drainage and even elevating Counties Initiative. “Getting local elected grasped by climate science skeptics—is critical access roads,” said David Mur- ofcials to look at climate change in a being embraced by funders ranging from phy, coastal resilience lead for consulting more strategic format is hard to do, but FEMA and HUD to the Rockefeller, engineering frm Milone & MacBroom, it’s required.” Barr and Kresge foundations. which has performed coastal resilience studies for several New England com- Local governments—often with help While the dictionary defnition means munities. from consulting frms and NGOs—are “the capacity to recover quickly from fnding ways to fund adaptation planning difculties,” most of the new investment A coastal risk resilience study for a CLIMATE RESILIENCE

2 Climate Change Business Journal Market Intelligence on Climate Change 4th Quarter 2015

CLIMATE CHANGE BUSINESS JOURNAL® small town is a small project, with fees town to do vulnerability and risk assess- ranging from $25,000 to $50,000, accord- ments followed by adaptation strategies,” ing to Murphy and others working in this Vol. 9, No. 10-12 said Indrani Ghosh, head of Kleinfelder’s ISSN 1940--8781 niche. But the projects identifed in such climate change group. Fourth Quarter 2015 studies can be major—and the studies State funding for resilience and adap- themselves give a community a leg up in tation remains sparse, yet opportunities Editor- in-Chief getting FEMA, HUD or other grants for like Massachusetts’ CZM grants can be Grant Ferrier resilience projects. “If there’s a budget in found. In California, the state’s fourth the planning phase [of a resilience study], Senior Editor climate assessment included a $4.5 mil- we can do some concept-level design, and Jim Hight lion RFP for contractors to help build the we can help the towns apply for grants,” capacity of local governments to plan for Managing Editor said Murphy. “We’ve helped some of our climate change impacts. Barrier islands in Florida protect the coastline andLynette infrastructure Thwaites from fooding; the Seven50clients Prosperity apply for Plan FEMA, a HUD grants Regional or HUD Planning grant project, focused on climate resilience CDBG grants for resilience projects, and Consultants often volunteer a portion Contributing Editors HUD is committed to helping communities recover from PREPARING COMMUNITIES FOR THE RISKS AND some have been successful.” of their time to help with their govern- Adriana Blair OPPORTUNITIES OF A CHANGING CLIMATE natural disasters and be more mentresilient clients’ togrant future applications. shocks Ghosh George Stubbs Consulting engineering frm Klein- and stresses. Most recently, in 2014,told CCBJ HUD that launched her frm has the received fees Natural disasters are occurringBrian more Runkel frequently and are felder has helped client communities in Charles Helget $1 billion National Disaster Resilienceand donated Competition time to help inclients order respond increasingly severe. All levels of government, individual Massachusetts work through the state’s Andrew Paterson to expand opportunities for eligibleto resilience states grant and RFPs—and jurisdictions they’ve to households, and businesses are shouldering the high cost of Coastal Zone Management funding Walter Howes employ innovative approaches toassisted resilience in writing and their recovery. clients’ own RFPs disaster recovery. Communities areTom lookingAarts for new ways to program, which ofers “grants ranging for professional services to implement become more resilient to these changes and challenges. from $50,000 to $70,000 for cities and Subscriber Services WHAT IS…? Planning for severe weather andCeleste other Ferrier climate changes Preparing Communities for a Changing Climate increases the safety of neighborhoods and improves a Moe Wittenborn CLIMATE The ability to prepare for and adapt to changing community’s ability to recover quickly after an event, conditions; and to withstand, respond to, and RESILIENCE recover rapidly from disruptions reducing losses and costs. WhileClimate disasters Change are Business expensive Journal® for newsletter is published in quarterly everyone, they have the most devastating effects on low- and HAZARD Taking action before the next disaster to reduce feature editions and special MITIGATION human and financial consequences later moderate-income families and householdssupplements by withoutEnvironmental the personal resources to bounce back. Resilience is the result of Business International Inc., 4452 CLIMATE Adjusting natural or human systems in a changing careful planning efforts rooted inPark an Blvd., awareness Suite 306, of San community Diego, environment that reduces negative effects and ADAPTATION takes advantage of opportunities assets and vulnerabilities. NaturalCA 92116.hazards 619-295-7685 and climate or email [email protected] change do not recognize political boundaries. Inter- © 2015 Environmental Business jurisdictional collaboration and regional planning are International Inc. All Rights Reserved. BY THE NUMBERS essential to becoming resilient toThis a publicationchanging or climate.any part may not be duplicated, reprinted or A critical component of HUD’srepublished mission without for thethe express past 50 Increase in rainfall during heaviest storm events years has been to support planningwritten permission and urban of the publisher. 70% in the Northeastern U.S. region (1958-2010) development efforts that expand opportunity for How to subscribe Americans. The Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) Reduction in average stream flows in major Annual subscriptions are $495 for Southwestern rivers and basins since 2001 grants awarded in 2010 and 2011individual constitute or single-use HUD’s subscriptions; most 37% comprehensive community and regionalcorporate electronic planning subscriptions effort in decades. HUD’s SCI awarded fundingstart at $795to 143 (up tocommunities 5 users). To Spent on mitigation saves an average of $4 in through Regional Planning Grantsorder and or forCommunity more information Challenge call $1 recovery costs following a natural disaster (619) 295-7685 x 15, email info@ Planning Grants, serving forty percentclimatechangebusiness.com, of U.S. residents. or HUD’s $250 million investment openedgo the to tinyurl.com/CCBJPage,door to hundreds of In CDBG-Disaster Recovery funds administered millions of dollars of public and whereprivate you investmentcan also sign up and for the $43 by HUD to states and localities to assist with recovery between 2005-2013 engaged more than 3,300 core partnercomplimentary groups CCBJ nationwide.Perspectives. BILLION

Source: HUD Offce of Economic Resilience Office of Economic Resilience Office of Community Planning and Development U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 4th Quarter 2015 Market Intelligence on Climate Change Climate Change Business Journal 3 grant-funded projects. “Of course, these Adaptation is Evolving have to go through a public bidding pro- cess, but we have the advantage of being Most state and local governments are at the early phases of adapting. Te domi- more familiar with what the RFP entails nant focus has been on “soft” activities like planning, vulnerability assessments, and since we helped craft it,” said Ghosh. capacity building. While planning is occurring at all levels of government and plans are becoming more sophisticated in their analysis of potential impacts and consider- Tis pro bono trend is refected on a ation of policy responses, planning is occurring in an ad hoc manner. larger scale by the substantial donations of services that frms such as Arcadis, Tis is primarily because there are few incentives, mandates or dedicated sources AECOM, Arup and CH2M are making of funding for adaptation. As a result, adaptation planning is taking many makeshift to the C40 and Rockefeller 100 Resil- forms that refect diferent local champions (for example, senior policymakers, agency ient Cities initiatives. Arup’s donation of staf, or community activists), threats (such as sea-level rise and urban heat-island services to C40 over the last three years efect), and vulnerable sectors (such as transportation and ecosystems). comes to about $1 million, for example. New incentives and mandates include: President Obama’s January 2015 Executive (See frm profle in this issue). Order making federal food risk management policies more robust (which resulted On the other side of the same coin, in FEMA requiring climate to be considered in state hazard mitigation plans) and NGOs like Te Nature Conservancy and HUD’s $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition. Georgetown Climate Center and private As the level of scientifc understanding and technical capacity increases, more foundations such as Kresge, Rockefeller and more jurisdictions are planning to meet unique local needs. Fifteen states have and Barr, are stepping up with funding, completed comprehensive, state-led adaptation plans (AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, technical assistance and help with initial ME, MD, MA, NH, NY, OR, PA, VA, and WA); an additional seven states (HI, planning that can position local govern- MI, MN, NJ, RI, VT, WI) are undertaking some form of adaptation planning that is ments to obtain state and federal funds. either either in progress, academically driven, or sector-specifc; and roughly 50 local See NGOs Leverage Expertise, Funding jurisdictions have adaptation plans that take a variety of forms. story in this issue. Few states and communities are implementing their plans by making “hard” Federal carrots and sticks changes in law or policy that alter regulatory and management decisions in light of projected climate change. Beyond the realm of government spending, consultants and NGOs are Source: Adapted and updated from Lessons from the Front Lines; a Synthesis Report to the Kresge Foundation, Georgetown Climate Center, July 2014 helping local ofcials understand and communicate the fnancial case for invest- rying food insurance get that reduction in the investments become big ticket items, ment in resilience by pointing to the ben- premiums,” said Hadsell. such as updating watershed management efts of discounted residential food insur- plans.” ance premiums that can be secured when Amec Foster Wheeler assisted communities achieve higher ratings under Charleston, South Carolina, in lowering While CRS can be considered a federal FEMA’s Community Rating System its CRS rating from a 7 to a 6, according “carrot” for local governments to invest (CRS). “All communities that participate to Hadsell, and this saves city residents in resilience and adaptation, “FEMA’s in the National Flood Insurance Program $1.2 million annually on their food insur- interest in local governments putting con- are eligible,” said Andrew Hadsell, unit ance policies. “If Charleston can go from sideration into identifying and planning manager for the Amec Foster Wheeler a 6 to a 5 [NFIP policyholders will] save mitigation for possible climate change ofce in Raleigh, North Carolina. another $1.2 million.” impacts, such as sea level rise—and having this information considered in hazard “We have this discussion [about CRS Communities enter the CRS system at mitigation plans—may be considered a ratings] with every local government we a 10, and when they take actions pre- stick,” said Hadsell. scribed by FEMA, they can achieve lower work with. If we can help a local govern- ratings—with each step cutting NFIP ment recognize the benefts of investing “Hazard mitigation plans are now re- premiums for property owners in food in the CRS program, we can help them quired to include a section that addresses zones by 5%. “Te community makes develop a path forward,” Hadsell contin- climate change adaptation,” he said. “For commitments to hazard mitigation and ued, adding that achieving ratings of 7 a lot of communities, there’s nothing of resilience through participating in these or 8 can be done relatively easily. “When concern. But when you start talking about activities, and private property owners car- you start trying to achieve a 5 through 1, coastal communities and communities 4 Climate Change Business Journal Market Intelligence on Climate Change 4th Quarter 2015

Extreme Weather Metrics for Recent Decades Siegfried. Sea level rise risk to afect property values?

In addition to the opportunity to reduce residential food insurance pre- miums—or mitigate future increases in premiums—a potential new driver to investing in resilience may lie in risk as- sessments and disclosures for individual properties. On the large commercial de- velopment scale, insurance companies and assurance frms such as PWC are working with the UN and NGOs to advocate that lenders require large commercial borrow- ers in vulnerable coastal cities to conduct 1-in-100 stress tests to determine how their properties will fare in storms made worse by climate change and sea level rise. (More on that in the insurance feature on CCBJ’s website: tinyurl.com/ccbjpage).

In highly vulnerable Florida, environ- Figure 2.2 ExtremeSource: weatherAdapting Infrastructure metrics forand Civilrecent Engineering decades, Practice including to Climate Change, the number ASCE 2015, of and record Wuebbles high et monthlymental attorney and law professor Albert temperatures (red)al, American (Karl Geophysical et al. 2012); Union the number of daily precipitation events exceeding the thresholdJ. Slap for and a a team of climate scientists 1-in-20 year recurrence (dark green); the sum of the number of top 50 snowstorms for the U.S. regionsincluding east Keren Bolter have teamed up subject to drought, the FEMA require- Siegfried, senior analyst in the Union to create Coastal Risk Rapid Assessment, of the Rocky mentMountains promotes (gray) understanding (expansion of of the analysis need inof Kunkel Concerned et al. Scientists’ 2013); the Climate number and of Encategory- 3, 4, or an food risk assessment tool for coastal 5 hurricanes forin the increased North resilienceAtlantic (orange) over time.” (http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atergy program. “When it comeslantic/); time forthe number of properties. “Right now, when you look at strong East Coast winter storms (light blue) (http://ecws.eas.cornell.edu/ECWS_graphs.htmla state to submit its updated plan, it will); the number Amec Foster Wheeler’s client Charles- property values, the closer a property is to of tornadoes of EF1 intensity or higher (light green) (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/annualtornadomaps/now need to factor in climate change. We ); ton was badly fooded in October 2015 the coastline, the more value is added to and the number of record low monthly temperatures (darkalso blue). expect The FEMA’s decade technical of the mapping2000s is the 12-year with a “days-long onslaught of tidal food- the property,” said Bolter. advisory council to come out with new period of 2001-2012.ing, high Extremesurf and beach precipit erosion,”ation events as de- were determined from 3,430 stations in the U.S. GHCN recommendations to account for sea level With sea level rise, many coastal data set with scribedless than by Weather.com.10% missing Beforedata for the the food peri od 1951-2011 following the methods of Kunkel et al. rise in future updates to its maps,” said properties will be physically vulnerable (2013). waters had receded, FEMA was opening Spanger-Siegfried. “Tese changes will to fooding—and susceptible to increas- Source: Wuebblesdisaster et al., assistance (2014); reproduced centers and with urging permission from American Geophysical Union. better represent the world we live in. ing food insurance rates of the nature eligible individuals and business owners to mentioned by UCS’s Spanger-Siegfried. apply for federal assistance. “Fortunately, “Te question of how to make food “Tis is a real risk that people don’t think Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 24.156.61.98 on 09/24/15. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved. Charleston is very good about maintain- insurance afordable for people is a vital about,” said Bolter. “Ultimately, this ing their hazard mitigation plans. If they one we need to tackle as rates come in should be a disclosure requirement, like a had not maintained it on that fve-year line with risk,” added Spanger-Siegfried. termite inspection.” cycle, when the federal disaster designa- “We need to stop making decisions upon tion went into place, that community which people’s safety, homes, and future “We created this tool because the would have been told it wasn’t eligible [for depend that aren’t reality-based. But existing datasets in the public domain are mitigation funds],” said Hadsell. (An up- we need to make sure people can cope hard to use and interpret,” said Bolter. to-date plan is not needed to be eligible with the costs.” While proposals exist “Our goal is democratize this data by for assistance funds after a disaster.) to manage costs, even the recent updates taking government datasets at the highest to FEMA food maps can push food level of accuracy available and putting FEMA’s requirements for state hazard insurance premiums up, heightening local that data through our algorithm in a way mitigation plans are becoming more Adapting Infrastructure and Civil Engineering Practice to a Changinggovernment Climate leaders’ incentive to improve that pagemakes 7 it usable for a property owner robust, according to Erika Spanger- their CRS ratings, according to Spanger- or buyer in any coastal county in the

4th Quarter 2015 Market Intelligence on Climate Change Climate Change Business Journal 5 country.” ment leaders, quantifying the threats ASFPM on Executive Order to coastal real estate—and seeing those Te CRRA works by taking a range 11988, 2015 Federal Flood threats refected in diminished property of sea level rise projections and evaluat- Risk Management Standard values—could create more of the urgency ing how much more often a property will they need to prioritize investing in resil- Te standard this nation has used be fooded in the future. Properties are ience. for the last 38 years (build to the base scored by the estimated number of food food elevation) is simply not working days during a 30-year mortgage period, “I think the private market is going to to reduce food losses. Annual food with the progression broken into fve-year be the most forceful in vulnerable coastal losses have increased from $5.6 billion increments. A sample CRRA score shared communities with a lot of high value real per year in the 1990s to well over $10 with CCBJ shows a property on Key Bis- estate,” said Jessica Grannis, adaptation billion in the 2000s. Furthermore, cayne going from zero food days in 2020 program manager for the Georgetown food losses don’t end at the bound- to between 11 and 20 by 2035. Climate Center. “Politicians all have very ary of the 100-year foodplain, as 25 short time horizons. Tey’re not looking percent of the dollar losses in the Na- “While the climate-informed ahead 50 or 100 years to evaluate how tional Flood Insurance Program occur climate change will afect these structures outside of the 100-year foodplain. science approach is more near the shorelines.” mature in coastal areas and Tese numbers show that the na- Flooding big driver for resilience in perhaps not yet viable in tion can no longer aford to design to Midwest the old standard. Te freeboard and riverine areas, it is almost 500-year approaches are pragmatic While coastal cities worry about food- universally recognized that and widely implemented by states and ing from rising seas, many Midwestern communities already. In fact, more climate change is happening cities are concerned about record-setting than 62 percent of the U.S. popula- foods from creeks and rivers—and in- and that it will lead to tion lives in a community with at least creasingly, from urban runof made more signifcant changes in food 1 foot of freeboard that applies to all severe by the higher rainfall amounts. risk.” - Association of State Floodplain development activities, not just federal NACO’s Linda Langston said the June actions. Managers 2008 foods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, galva- And while the climate-informed nized local governments there to improve science approach is more mature in Coastal Risk Consulting takes on a their resilience to fooding. “Flood stage coastal areas and perhaps not yet viable wide range of projects for local govern- on the Cedar River is about 12 feet, and in riverine areas, it is almost universally ments, including peer reviews of stormwa- previous foods over the last 150 years recognized that climate change is hap- ter management plans developed by en- had gone to 21 or 22 feet four times,” said pening and that it will lead to signif- gineering companies. But Bolter foresees Langston. “In this case, the food went to cant changes in food risk. use of the CRRA becoming widespread 31 feet, and the velocity was much faster in coastal communities. Te frm has and more damaging than anything we’d Tis standard does not attempt to automated the CRRA for most of South experienced before.” address the causes of those changes, Florida and anticipates automating it for but appropriately focuses on how Langston says that climate change the entire U.S. by 2017. federal dollars should be spent in order denial is slowly eroding away in Iowa— to protect the taxpayer’s investment. Bolter points to Hurricane Sandy where corn and other commodity crop Finally, ASFPM appreciates the fex- as the top illustration of why changing farmers are highly dependent on summer ibility in the standard, enabling agen- food risks for coastal properties should rains. “Farmers who have been farming cies to determine the most appropriate become part of real estate transactions. for generations are pragmatic people,” she approach for a given federal action. “I’ve looked at Zillow for the price history said. “Tey may not talk about ‘climate While we do have detailed sugges- of some coastal properties in New Jersey. change,’ but they will freely admit that the tions and comments for improving the It’s not uncommon to see a property that weather has been weird.” FFRMS, ASFPM nonetheless is fully was valued at $500,000 before Sandy now “While this summer [of 2015] saw supportive of the standard. selling for $150,000.” intermittent rain, for the previous three Source: Excerpted from April 2015 Comments from From the perspective of local govern- years we had a lot of rain in spring and Association of State Floodplain Managers 6 Climate Change Business Journal Market Intelligence on Climate Change 4th Quarter 2015

Adaptation: Top-down vs. Bottom-up dry years.” Top-Down Approach Bottom-Up Approach Illinois “surprise”

A recent study of fooding in Illinois Develop designs to reduce surprised the state’s foodplain man- Emission Scenarios current vulnerability or ager. “Te face of fooding in Illinois has make future modifications changed,” said Paul Osman, manager of based on observations Global Climate Models Statewide Floodplain Programs for the state Ofce of Water Resources. “We have done a very good job mitigating food Using multiple climate data losses in mapped foodplains. Tose losses Downscale to regional sources, assess plausibility and local scale of future failure are declining. However, food losses out- side of the foodplain are on the increase primarily in urban areas [and] caused by Determine engineering Determine vulnerability and short-term and localized extreme rainfall impacts of changes in potential engineering events which exceed storm sewer design climate failures capacities. [Tese] now account for 90 percent of damages.”

Climate change is pegged as a factor in this trend in Illinois fooding, accord- Vulnerability Domain ing to a summary of the report by Illinois Public Radio. “Average temperatures in Source: Adapting Infrastructure and Civil Engineering Practice to Climate Change, ASCE 2015 Illinois have warmed by about 1 degree Figure 3.2: A comparison of top-down and bottom-up approaches to climate change adaptation. over the last century. And warmer air can into early summer to about the Fourth Wet-Dry cycles bring WQ issues hold more water vapor,” states the IPR of July, then no rain for eight weeks. Tat summary. Water utilities and stormwater manag- had a lot of impact on commodity crops.” An approach that considers incremental cost of additionalers in Midwestern actions states may and be citieshelpful are in making“T cost-at could explain why precipitation effective decisions.Ceil Strauss, If a Minnesotasystem or state project food can- be designealso “lookingd or very planned hard at in how incremental changing features,in Illinois the has increased 10 percent over incrementalplain costs manager, and incremental described an increase benefits in of eachweather feature patterns can becould determined. afect their waterWhen evaluatingthe past 100 years — from an average scenarios or“higher conducting intensity sensitivityevents” over theanalysis, last 10 plannersquality,” can said evaluate Tony Mardam, the additional Stanley Con co-st ofof meeting 36 inches a year to 40. Over the past risk-reductionyears. objectives “We have been for seeingincrementally more foods more sultantssevere ’ conditions.practice leader Incremental for water. (See features decade, can be Illinois cities experienced an aver- added to reducefrom storms failure that risks are in as the long 10, 12as andthe 14incremental profle of benefits Stanley Consultants.)are perceived “Some to exceed of age the of 1.8 storms with 4 or more inches incrementalinch costs. range,” Planners said Strauss. can “We’ve evaluate always whet herour it is cities cost now effective are seeing to patterns include of additional one of rain — the highest that rate has ever dry year followed by one wet year,” said been.” measures thathad thoseperform in the well past, under but maybe a br everyoader 10 range of future conditions. years. We’ve had quite a few in the last Mardam. In agricultural states like Iowa, Not coincidentally, it was in Illinois decade.” this means that during the wet year, “a lot where Farmers Insurance afliates sued Low-regret strategies and robust design. The uncertaintymore fertilizer associated will run owithf into future creeks climateand is not

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 24.156.61.98 on 09/24/15. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved. local governments for failing to plan for completely quantifiableTo provide new and revenues therefore, for food if it is to berivers used than in youengineering expect.” practice, will require climate change—and thereby exposing engineeringcontrol judgment. and stormwater Decision management, methods that account for this uncertainty may be employed, hundreds of U.S. communities have “Some Midwestern clients are seeing Farmers’ insureds to damages. “We are such as robust decision making (Groves and Lempert, 2007; Groves et al, 2008; Lempert et al. created stormwater utilities that charge water quality deteriorate because of more very aware of the Farmers Lawsuit,” said 2003). Thisproperty approach owners to feesdecision based onmaking their identifiesfrequent robust and alternativ pronouncedes swingsthat do between well across Osman, a range who defended the afected com- of possibleestimated future conditions. runof to the Thesewer case systems. study T eon Lakewet and Superior dry years,” regulation, said Mardam. described “Te in Appendixmunities as “doing exemplary work [with] A, used robustnessincreases and as changea decision in precipitation criterion patin -choosingstochastic regulation models prepared rules. by hydraulic very proactive foodplain and stormwater terns in the Midwest may lead more such researchers clearly show this is happening, programs.” communities to take this route, and this is and we’re seeing it as engineers when we Midwest foodplain managers: we discussed in the Squash the Hydrograph sample the water sources. Fertilizer runof need better data on climate change story on natural stormwater management is becoming a growing problem in quite Adapting Infrastructurein this issue. and Civil Engineering Practice to a Changinga few Climate watersheds due to this developing Whatpage they’re22 lacking is “the data to bi-annual pattern of wet years following

4th Quarter 2015 Market Intelligence on Climate Change Climate Change Business Journal 7 support long-term and proactive plan- Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County media and evacuating people well ahead ning,” said Osman. In Illinois and the and the state—made it into the fnal of the storm. Midwest generally, Osman says “we are round of HUD’s National Disaster Resil- Amec Foster Wheeler’s Andrew struggling to fnd quantitative data to plan ience Competition, according to Yeung. Hadsell points to the need to convey the for climate change. If the data were there, Awards from the $1 billion fund were message “Turn around, don’t drown” to I have absolutely no doubt our communi- scheduled to be announced in December drivers in fooded regions. “Tis is one of ties would adopt those strategies. As you 2015. Nationwide, 40 communities made the biggest issues with food risk,” he said. know, Farmers withdrew the lawsuit. I it through the frst screening, according to “It is so challenging to convey this mes- suspect they realized the same truth. Te the NDRC website. sage to the general public.” lawsuit has had no impact on voters or More than just engineering public ofcials as far as I know.” “I was frustrated during recent storms As communities look to improve their because a network television channel in Local governments—often with resilience to fooding, sea level rise and the Norfolk area was showing video of help from consulting frms and other climate change impacts, lead- people water skiing behind cars through ers—and the consulting frms that want fooded waters, and we constantly see cars NGOs—are fnding ways to to work for them—must focus not just driving through water as it rapidly rises fund adaptation planning and on upgrading infrastructure but also on in roadway-overtopping scenarios,” said measures. planning for—and urging residents and Hadsell. “Tis is an excellent example of businesses to plan for—the next disaster, an opportunity for local governments to whether it’s climate-related or not. promote risk communication and increase While good localized data on climate awareness of the variety of potential im- change impacts in the Midwest may be “If you’re a business consultant in this pacts from food hazards.” lacking, planning for food resilience is arena and you’re talking about climate change, I think one of the best ofers you still increasing. Louise Yeung, an urban Leaders—and the consulting planner for the Chicago Metropolitan could make is to help businesses and lo- Agency for Planning, told CCBJ that cal governments with their contingency frms that want to work for “there’s a great deal of assessment work plans,” said Langston. “Your business them—must focus not just on around urban fooding” due to basement would become the friend of every state upgrading infrastructure but hazard mitigation ofcer and emergency and sewer back-ups rather than riverine also on planning for the next fooding within a foodplain. planner. And building these kinds of relationships is also going to do your frm disaster. Another recent study enabled by the good.” Urban Flooding Awareness Act passed by the Illinois General Assembly found that In late October 2015, Hurricane From better communications around urban fooding has cost Illinois communi- Patricia plowed through the western how to drive in a food to massive infra- ties over $2.3 billion of documented dam- Mexico state of Jalisco—but with very structure projects like those described in ages from 2007-2014 and is expected to few casualties because Mexican authori- the living shorelines story in this issue, be exacerbated further by climate change, ties had learned lessons “from botched or extreme weather and climate change seem according to Yeung. inadequate responses to earlier catastro- to be presenting a growing number of new phes,” according to a New York Times opportunities for businesses to provide Many Illinois communities are taking story quoting Richard Olson, director of solutions to local governments. R proactive approaches to building climate the Extreme Events Institute at Florida change resilience, according to Yeung. International University. “It looks like “Te City of Chicago is doing a tremen- they got this one right.” dous amount of work around climate resilience and was recently named one of “Mexico now has a national emer- the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities,” said gency response system that reaches from Yeung. “Tey have been focusing on con- the central government to the local level. necting climate action to green infrastruc- ‘Tere was a strong learning curve and ture and workforce development as well.” they put resources into it,’ Mr. Olson said.” Efective measures included warn- And four jurisdictions in Illinois— ing local residents on radio, TV and social