Antioch University New EnglandCenter for Climate Preparedness
and Community Resilience

Where to Put the Water: Assessing the Vulnerability of Urban Stormwater Systems to a Changing Climate

September 20th, 2017

Michael Simpson’s slides

Nancy Beller-Simms’ slides

Referenced reports

Presenter: Michael Simpson, Antioch University New England

Moderator, Nancy Beller-Simms, Program Director for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Program Office’s, Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP)

This webinar will use the cities of Minneapolis and Victoria, MN to describe how to conduct a urban stormwater vulnerability assessment within the context of a projection of increased frequency of more extreme precipitation events. Options for building resilience into the system will be discussed, along with a cost analysis of different options that may be available for dealing with waters exceeding the capacity of the current capacity. Included in the discussion will be examples of how low-impact development and green infrastructure can be used to mitigate projected impacts.

Participants will leave the webinar with:

• A structured approach of how to complete such urban stormwater vulnerability assessment
• What data is required to conduct such an assessment
• Options that may be available in highly-built out urban landscapes to mitigate impacts from run-off
• And some understanding of comparative costs for mitigation in the context of avoided damage costs