Friday, December 2nd
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Castleman 212
Building Extreme Weather Resiliency through Improved Weather and Climate Prediction and Public Response Strategies
In the US, floods annually cause an average 89 fatalities and $8.2 billion in damages. In Taiwan, flooding has led to nearly 1,000 fatalities and over $12.8 billion NT in damages since 2000 (NWS, 2014). These numbers are expected to grow due to climate change, population growth, and increased vulnerability and exposure to extreme weather events (IPCC, AR5). Coastal and inland communities both in Taiwan and the northeastern (NE) US are examples of communities that are becoming more vulnerable and exposed to increasing extreme precipitation trends associated with changing large-scale patterns. Proper mitigation could reduce adverse extreme weather impacts, particularly flood-related losses, with improved predictability of short-range and long-term forecasts, more effective warning tools, and more effective decision support for decision makers and emergency responders. Achieving research on anyone of these goals particularly in a way that accounts for their interdependencies along the weather risk mitigation continuum is daunting.
The US–Taiwan PIRE seeks to address the challenges associated with extreme weather resiliency with a particular focus of research on reducing the impacts/risks of extreme precipitation through the enhancement of weather and climate prediction and a better understanding of decision-making risk and response during extreme weather events. Research among the consortium will focus on (1) better understanding of trends in weather extremes on a regional scale (particularly in East Asia and the NE US); (2) examination of NWP ensemble techniques that better capture the uncertainty of events; (3) investigation of the efficacy of decision-making and the response of emergency managers with probabilistic weather and impacts information.
Everette Joseph, an internationally recognized leader in the field of atmospheric sciences, is the director of the University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) and SUNY Empire Innovations Professor in Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Joseph played a significant role in the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Aerosol and Ocean Science Expeditions. Dr. Joseph has conducted extensive research observing the role of aerosols and certain gases on climate and weather from field observations in the Mid-Atlantic to marine expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean. The department of Environmental Engineering is co-sponsoring this seminar.
For more information, contact: Ashley Sandy at ashley.sandy@uconn.edu