Convergence: RAISE: Systems Approaches for Vulnerability Evaluation and Urban Resilience

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

The inability to assess and predict the extent and impact of extreme weather conditions within cities is a critical vulnerability. Urban floods come from overflowing rivers and streams as well as insufficient drainage from impervious surface structures. The lack of neighborhood-scale forecasts for flooding hampers social and public health intervention efforts. Similar limitations exist for air quality and heat island/temperature impacts. This research project will combine perspectives from natural, social, data and engineering sciences to improve the prediction of weather patterns, air quality, flooding, and social and economic impacts at the neighborhood scale. Sensor installations and model simulations will be used to examine the potential for green infrastructure to reduce flooding, moderate heat waves, and improve air quality locally and across the region. Models that integrate across rainfall, topography, urban infrastructure and impervious surfaces are not currently viable or available. This research project will enable the integration of water routing mechanisms that were previous treated separately and can now be considered as portions of a larger more complex problem. Project results will be directly used for vulnerability assessment and infrastructure design in Chicago neighborhoods. This convergence project will catalyze new multi-level urban assessment and prediction capabilities; yield new capacity for city-scale simulations of links between weather, infrastructure, and population vulnerability; and demonstrate the application of this new systems-level prediction framework to adaptive green infrastructure design. The principle components of the project include (1) installation and utilization of remote and distributed sensing to measure impacts; (2) high-resolution infrastructure/environmental models that elucidate links between severe weather, urban infrastructure, and vulnerability; and (3) an assessment of co-occurring social and economic impacts as a result of extreme weather, infrastructure and urban topography. Many graduate students and postdocs will be directly engaged in the project. The project will contribute vulnerability maps to local jurisdictions and will encourage government and public/private discourse on urban vulnerability to extreme weather as well as potential resilience strategies. Project data will be publicly available through the Chicago Data Portal. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.