Milwaukee’s Climate Change Initiative
Responding to severe storms that impacted the Milwaukee region in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) approved a 2035 Vision that has helped them to make significant achievements in the area of climate preparedness and water sustainability. Our speaker will outline the steps that the MMSD is taking to meet the goals of their 2035 Vision. This webinar will provide information about:
- How Milwaukee’s is using both “green” and “grey” infrastructure approaches to become more resilient to changes in climate, increase energy efficiency, and maintain stellar regulatory compliance.
- Techniques Milwaukee has used to foster local leadership and collaboration in order to launch green infrastructure forward as they continue to build a strong economy.
The Economics of Green Infrastructure: Strategies for Flood Mitigation
As the climate continues to change, it is predicted that the Great Lakes region will see an increase in severe rain events which is likely to cause increased flooding in local communities. Understanding the cost of these flooding events, and how to help lessen and even prevent them, is a critical need for Great Lakes communities. This webinar will provide information about:
- How economic information can be used to help communities understand and make more informed decisions about reducing the impacts of flooding
- How green infrastructure can be an important tool to help reduce flooding
- Case studies from three pilot areas in the Great Lakes: Green Bay, WI, Duluth, MN, and Toledo, OH
A Study in Collaboration: Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI)
Stakeholder engagement is an essential element of climate adaptation. The Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) has organized as a distributed network of stakeholder groups, bringing together regionally scaled climate projections with the resource managers most concerned about the impacts of climate change. Despite the management challenges of this organizational model, WICCI has had notable success in advancing climate change adaptation in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. This webinar will provide discussion about:
- Organizing for stakeholder engagement
- Challenges in managing the climate adaptation dialog
- Successes in advancing regional adaptation
Climate Change, Uncertainty & Communication
Decision support is a collection of tools for the communication of issues underpinning the selection of actions or policies. Climate policy is a particularly challenging arena for decision support due to the complex connections between climate and human activities; numerous interest groups with competing interest; and uncertainties in both the future of climate and the impacts of actions. Strategies for treating the uncertainties, including dealing with uncertainty about our understanding of that uncertainty, are discussed. This webinar will provide information about:
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Challenges in communicating with diverse groups
Climate Change & Public Health
Climate change threatens human health and well-being in numerous ways, from increased extreme weather events, wildfires, and decreased air quality, to insect-transmitted diseases, food and water contamination, and mental health threats. Despite these challenges, responding to climate change also provides opportunities to improve human health and well-being, as many of the strategies used to address climate change offer a variety of other benefits that protect people while combating climate change. This webinar will provide information about:
- Climate change impacts on health in the United States.
- Potential strategies for climate change adaptation in the public health sector
- Possible opportunities to benefit health while addressing climate change
