Climate Conversations: Housing and Disasters

Disaster planning and recovery have historically centered around a single, isolated event. However, climate change is driving more high-intensity events, with disaster after disaster striking the same regions without time to fully recover between events, exacerbating the impact of each subsequent incident. Compounding disasters that introduce new, interconnected, and complex risk scenarios are expected to increase in frequency and will require comprehensive new strategies for emergency planning and response. Infrastructure resilience is one aspect of this: constructed buildings, such as homes, are unable to withstand the compounding impacts of multiple disasters, leaving already vulnerable populations without shelter and comfort. Christopher Flavelle (The New York Times) will moderate a conversation between Carlos Martín (Harvard University) and Tracy Kijewski-Correa (University of Notre Dame) discussing housing resilience and access in the context of compounding disasters and how to rethink our disaster framework to adapt to this new reality.