Great Problems, Great Minds: Infrastructure Resilience Under Climate Uncertainty

Join the Department of Social Sciences for its fifth event in the Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series. The event's speaker is Costa Samaras, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Understanding infrastructure’s vulnerability to climate change is essential given the long asset lives, criticality of services delivered, and high costs of upgrading and maintaining these systems. Stormwater infrastructure in the United States is designed using government data and guidelines, but the information is infrequently and inconsistently updated. This increases risk in areas where precipitation patterns have changed over time, while also affecting decisions, infrastructure choices, costs, and more. Samaras will discuss how infrastructure managers, engineers, researchers, and policymakers can manage uncertainty and ensure climate-safe infrastructure systems for the 21st century and beyond.