Featured Stories | June 29, 2014

Watch it Again! MIT Sea Grant’s 2014 Coastal Climate Change Symposium

By Genevieve Wanucha

MIT Sea Grant College convened a three-day Climate Change Symposium on Sustaining Coastal Cities between June 16-18 2014. Leaders in academia, government, and private industry addressed issues about changes in sea level, storm surges, extreme precipitation and flooding and options for adapting to these risks. Videos of all the presentations, available right here, provide a valuable and extensive resource for learning about the latest coastal climate change science and social policy, with a focus on Boston-specific issues.

Kristina Hill (UC Berkeley) Kristian Koreman (Zones Urbaines Sensibles), and Jeffrey Donnelly (WHOI) on panel “The Role of Natural and Green Landscapes.” Photo: MIT Sea Grant

Choose the video of your interest with this list of the speakers and talk abstracts, then click the drop down box below (upper-left) to select the talk. Be sure to check out the talks by MIT and WHOI folks, including WHOI physical oceanographer Robert Beardsley, MIT PhD ’68, on predicting coastal inundation in Massachusetts, along with Changsheng Chen, MIT PhD ’92, of UMASS Dartmouth; MIT Sea Grant’s Stefano Brizzolara on ways to protect shorelines against flooding; Researcher Travis Franck, MIT PhD ’09, of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Climate Interactive, on developing a coastal city and hurricane demo simulator; WHOI’s Jeffrey Donnelly on why we need a better understanding of past hurricane landfalls in the northeastern US; and Robert Armstrong, co-founder of MIT Energy Initiative, on energy pathways to reducing the carbon footprint of our energy system.

Also, check out the climate risks and responsibilities facing Boston–such as the vulnerability of our sewage systems and highways–from leaders at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Massachusetts State Senate, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Boston Water and Sewer Commission, Chelsea City Council, National Grid, the Environmental Protection Agency, and FEMA.