CVEN 5909: Hazards, Resilience & Sustainability for the Natural & Built Environment

In-Person, Fall

Course Description

Introduces students to the effects of global climate change on natural and built environments, including its impact on the frequency and intensity of hazards and climatic extremes, social inequalities, and opportunities in engineering design for adaptation and mitigation, providing a survey approach to understanding major hazards and emerging engineering solutions.

Learning Objectives

• Students will identify the scientific basis, geopolitical and historical drivers of global climate change within and between countries and populations.

• Students will identify natural and built climatic hazards and solutions. 

• Students will describe global climate resilience efforts, including present-day programs, frameworks, funding agencies, and implementations. 

• Students will describe and critique technical interventions promoted to address or adapt to global climate change. 

• Students will become familiar with basic statistical and geospatial data analytical tools for modeling hazards and infrastructure vulnerability. 

• Students will become familiar with basic measurement design and deployment tools.

Course Organization 

Introduction

1. Climate Change Science and Evidence Basics

2. Modeling of Climatic Hazards in a Changing Climate

3. EnRoads Global Climate Simulator

4. Planetary Boundaries

5. Global Economic and Health Inequalities

6. Global Burden of Disease

7. In-Situ and Remote Sensing Applications

8. 50 Breakthroughs

Natural Environmental Hazard and Engineering Solution Identification

9. Water Security

10. Food Security

11. Air Quality

Built Environmental Hazard and Engineering Solution Identification

12. Relationship between Environmental Hazards and the Built Environment 

13. Vulnerability and Risk for Housing and Buildings 

14. Equitable and Sustainable Opportunities for Adaptation for Housing and Buildings 

15. Vulnerability and Risk for Lifelines and Other Infrastructure

16.  Equitable and Sustainable Opportunities for Infrastructure Adaptation

Prerequisite  

None

Course Materials

• Neff, Jason, “A Changing Planet”,  - Chapter selections required

• Hickel, Jason, "The Divide" - Required, PDF version provided through Canvas

• Earth Beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries, Science, 2023

• Energy Access, Water Security, Food Security, Our World In Data and associated citations

• Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, Our World in Data

• Global Burden of Disease, Lancet Article Selection

• National Climate Assessment 

• A series of journal articles on statistical modeling of climatic hazards, remote sensing opportunities for modeling hazards and impacts on infrastructure, infrastructure vulnerability and risk,  and climate adaptation solutions.

Grading

Letter grading