Episode Details

What is The Intersection of Emergency Management and Climate Adaptation?

As Earth (Day) Week comes to a close, I am left with the question, how do we see the intersection of emergency management and climate adaptation?  Holly ManieOskoii’s piece Climate Resilience Can Elevate The Emergency Management Field explores the idea that the knowledge of basic climate science is a critical area of study for emergency management. I have to agree with that assessment as well.  

Photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash

One of the areas that I studied in graduate school was land use and the environment. The link between land use, climate, and disasters are complex.  A great example of land use and the impacts on disaster response is Houston and Hurricane Harvey. 

When Harvey stalled over Houston, the rain caused extreme flooding. Fifteen Counties in the region reported over 25” of rainfall (the depth of an average toddler pool). The flooding was characterized by extreme precipitation events, low topographic relief, and clay-dominated soils. It is naturally flood-prone. However, Houston is also one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. This rapid growth has contributed to increased runoff volumes and rates in areas where climate changes have also been shown to be contributing to extreme precipitation. 

Why Should Emergency Managers Care? 

That is always the question, what is the threat matrix for the climate-caused emergencies. In the SouthWest United States, we are experiencing a year-round fire season.  Fulled by dry winds and ample fule. With increasing global surface temperatures, the possibility of more droughts and increased intensity of storms will likely occur. As more water vapor is evaporated into the atmosphere, more powerful storms develop. More heat in the atmosphere and warmer ocean surface temperatures can increase wind speeds in tropical storms. 

I hope you all had a great Earth Day (Week), and please join us on May 19th, 2022 | at 11 AM PT for a great discussion on climate-induced relocation and why emergency management needs to be involved. 

Podcasts

The Todd De Voe Show

Leaning Forward Human-Centered Crisis Management

Alicia Johnson's approach to getting your organization ready for a crisis is different from others; she takes a human approach to planning. Using a human-centered design to support those decisions may prove beneficial as you decide how your company will respond to an emergency. Leaders must consider how a crisis can affect their employees, their employee's families, and the community.

So how can a leader hope to strike a balance between saving their business and mitigating a crisis? A human-centered design approach to that question is a positive place to begin.

Alicia Johnson

Twitter handle https://twitter.com/UrbanAreaAlicia

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciadjohnson/

Website https://twolynchpinroad.com/prepare respond recover

Business Continuity Today

Building High-Quality Teams and Culture

A NASCAR PIT CREW COMES TO MIND when I think of a high-performing team. Each team member has