Climate change is usually discussed as global phenomena, but it will have local impacts that every community in North Carolina, the U.S. and the world will have to confront. In North Carolina climate change is expected to increase extreme heat, increase the frequency and severity of drought, raise sea levels, increase the intensity of hurricanes, and increase heavy precipitation.

If no action is taken these changes may cause economic loss, environmental damage and decline in public health. Fortunately, there are many tools at the disposal of local governments to address these impacts; many are already in use to address current issues. The handbook will emphasize these opportunities and provide guidance to retool existing policy and programs to address climate change.

Working with an advisory committee comprised of local elected officials, planners, emergency managers, and representatives from state agencies, UNC researchers are creating a useful document for local communities. The handbook will be available to interested local governments.

The project is spearheaded by David Brower, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Working with him is Sierra Schelegle, a PhD candidate in the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology, who will continue studying local climate adaptation for her dissertation.

The handbook is expected to be released in the summer of 2013.

Irene left the state of Vermont with major flood damage to roads, houses, and businesses. The state applied to EPA’s Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) Program for assistance in recovering from the damage in a way that allows the state to be more resilient to future natural hazards and to plan for future growth.

Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development Commissioner Noelle McKay commented that “the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance program has been a great resource to assist Vermont’s state agencies determine how best to ‘build back stronger and smarter than Irene found us’ – the goal of Governor Shumlin.”

Vermont was one of five selected recipients of the SGIA program nationwide. In addition to helping the selected recipients with their post-disaster challenges, the SGIA program aims to create models that can catalyze similar projects across the country and develop new methods and tools that other communities can use.

The UNC Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters’ Executive Director Gavin Smith, Research Associate Dylan Sandler, and UNC Department of City and Regional Planning graduate student Mikey Goralnik are assisting the state of Vermont in developing a series of recommendations to integrate smart growth and disaster resilience principles into both post-Irene recovery strategies and pre-event recovery plans.

Vermont Commissioner McKay commented that “the perspective and real world experience provided by the UNC-CH Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters has been very valuable in helping us think about the best path forward for our state.”

“The formation of this Council represents an important milestone towards engaging the academic community in our homeland security efforts,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Their collective expertise will be a critical asset to the Department, and I look forward to working with them.”

The new council underscores the Department’s commitment to working with the academic community. Secretary Napolitano has asked the group, which will be chaired by Dr. Wallace Loh of the University of Maryland, to provide advice and recommendations on issues related to student and recent graduate recruitment; international students; academic research; campus and community resiliency, security and preparedness; and faculty exchanges.

The group’s inaugural meeting will take place on March 20 in Washington, D.C. A notice in the Federal Register formally announced the first meeting, which is open to the public.

Dr. Holden Thorp, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was named to the inaugural council. Read DHS news release here.

Bruce Glavovic

On Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, the UNC Hazards Center hosted a talk by New Zealand professor and hazards researcher Dr. Bruce Glavovic. He presented “Rethinking Recovery: the Christchurch Earthquake.”

His discussion will include Glavovic’s recent research on the nature of recovery based on an analysis of the first year of recovery efforts in earthquake-ravaged Greater Christchurch. This experience reveals the essential character of recovery: it is fundamentally a governance challenge – making critical post-disaster social choices under ‘pressure cooker’ conditions. View Dr. Glavovic’s presentation (2.4 MG PDF)

Glavovic, the Earthquake Commission Fellow in Natural Hazards Planning, is a professor in natural hazards planning, resource and environmental planning at Massey University’s School of People, Planning and Environment in Palmerston North. Glavovic serves as Associate Director of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University, New Zealand.

The UNC Hazards Center has partnered with the Wellington-based Joint Centre for Disaster Research to collaborate on research, teaching, lesson sharing and scholarly exchange.

Pictured: back (left to right), Gavin Smith (UNC CH), Mo Gabr (NC State), Cary Caruso (NC State), Ward Lyles (UNCCH); front (left to right), Rick Luettich (UNCCH), Under Secretary Tara OToole, Dylan Sandler (UNCCH), Margery Overton (NC State), Tom Shay (UNCCH)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Under Secretary Tara O’Toole visited the DHS Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence in Chapel Hill Thursday, October 20. The Coastal Hazards Center (CHC) is co-led by the Center for the Study of Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management (DIEM) at UNC Chapel Hill and the Analysis and Research of Coastal Hazards (ARCH) at Jackson State University.

According to DIEM Executive Director Gavin Smith, “Meeting with DHS Science and Technology Under Secretary O’Toole provided us an opportunity to discuss our research and explain how we were getting our results into the hands of end-users like FEMA, NOAA, the Coast Guard as well as state and local government officials.”

On her visit to DIEM, Under Secretary O’Toole heard presentations from five researchers about ongoing projects.

“The visit emphasized how much fascinating research is going on in the COEs,” said Under Secretary O’Toole. She also noted that this COE is working on how to put more emphasis on planning the response and recovery phases of disaster management, and contemplating creating a certificate-based education program in this area.

Ongoing projects presented were as follows:

• CHC Director Rick Luettich discussed his coastal modeling project, ADCIRC, and its recent success for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Noted in a recent letter of commendation, USCG hailed the accurate prediction of storm surge during Hurricane Irene that resulted in the successful relocation of their command center in Norfolk, Va., to St. Louis where it remained operable. ADCIRC predicted correctly that if the command center remained in Norfolk, it would be inundated with water.

• Dr. Gavin Smith, along with Ph.D. candidate Ward Lyles, discussed the planning tools developed by Smith, Phil Berke, professor in City and Regional Planning, and Lyles, for the projects analyzing mitigation and recovery policy and planning in the U.S. The recovery plan evaluation tool will be used to inform a DIEM research project initiated in Year Four to help North Carolina develop an improved recovery plan, a recovery planning guidance document, and a recovery exercise.

• Dr. Mo Gabr, professor of civil and construction engineering at NC State University, and Ph.D. student Casey Caruso presented information on the In-Situ Scour Evaluation Probe that allows predictions, based on the nature of the soil around pilings and roadways, of which bridges and roads might fail due to erosion.

• Dr. Margery Overton, professor of civil and construction engineering at NC State, presented her project results in Evolving and Engineered Landforms. She began the initial development of a dynamic digital elevation model for the oceanfront shoreline considering accelerated sea level rise and associated shoreline response.

• Dr. Tom Shay, education coordinator for DIEM and assistant professor in UNC’s Department of Marine Sciences, spoke about Coastal Hazards modeling with Sea-Level Rise and Educational Opportunities. In an effort to enhance educational opportunities associated with coastal modeling, Shay has been working in conjunction with The Athena Group to develop a middle school science fair kit for students to investigate the effects of various coastal and storm factors that impact physical structures and the financial costs of when a hurricane makes landfall in a given area.

After the visit in Chapel Hill, O’Toole, Luettich, Gabr and DIEM Research Associate Dylan Sandler attended a roundtable at Research Triangle Institute hosted by Congressman David Price (D-N.C.) featuring Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Price emphasized the importance of research and development to the U.S. economy. About 30 people were in attendance at the roundtable, including the constituency from DIEM.

The Department of Homeland Security, Office of University Programs, Science and Technology Directorate, funded the Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence in 2008.

Tricia Wachtendorf and William Waugh are Principal Investigators of the DIEM project, Multi-Organizational Collaborative Leadership and Interaction.