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Floods, wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, extreme events.  It is difficult to watch or read the news or enter into a conversation without a natural disaster entering into the discussion.  In terms of infrastructure, it often feels like communities are either recovering from the damages incurred from the last event or preparing for the damages that may occur from the next event.  Today, these immediate concerns are compounded by the increasing attention being paid to climate change.  An ever increasing line of studies is leading to a common conclusion; it is not a matter of whether our infrastructure will be impacted, but when it will happen and how much can we mitigate the impact.  In effect, this is a “pay me now” or “pay me much more later” decision.  

The challenge for individuals tasked with setting climate change policy and addressing these near-term and long-term issues is the fact that there are no absolutes concerning what may or may not occur.  Decision making in this context requires individuals to accept a level of uncertainty in their decisions and accept that a level of risk will be included in every decision.  Although uncertainty is not new to infrastructure planners, climate change represents a new challenge.  Specifically, infrastructure design and maintenance decisions need to be made today to address scenarios that may not occur for twenty or thirty years or more.  Concurrently, these decision must be made with an understanding that the costs associated with enhancing long-term resiliency may come at the expense of short-term benefits.  

While this challenge is based in fiscal realities, it is not the absolute that many portray it to be.  Rather, climate change projections should be addressed as an opportunity to; 1) analyze the critical infrastructure needs within a community, and 2) leverage available opportunities to enhance resiliency against gradual climate change impacts and extreme events.  This perspective is the basis for the climate change impact work conducted by Prof. Chinowsky. Based on a decade of research in over 50 countries, Prof. Chinowsky's team provides decision makers with detailed cost estimates and risk analysis of how changing climate parameters will impact local, national, and regional infrastructure systems.