Planning visit for US-Australia Collaborative Research on Climate-Related Infrastructure Adaptation for Natural Hazards

1050443Li该奖项支持计划访问，使密歇根理工大学的李悦教授能够与澳大利亚基础设施性能与可靠性中心主任Mark Steward教授、澳大利亚纽卡斯尔大学气候影响管理中心主任Garry Willgoose教授以及英联邦科学与工业研究组织气候适应与可持续生态系统旗舰项目的王晓明博士会面。该项目的目标是支持发展美国和澳大利亚之间的合作研究伙伴关系，以适应与气候有关的基础设施，抵御自然灾害。有证据表明，飓风(旋风)、降雪和强降水以及洪水等自然灾害预计会在频率和强度上发生变化，气候变化导致的气温上升幅度最小。这些极端事件可能会对基础设施造成严重破坏，包括建筑物、道路、桥梁和公用事业，特别是因为目前的设计实践假设一个固定的过程，危险发生的概率没有随时间变化。合作研究将为美国职业生涯早期的教职员工和学生发展长期的合作伙伴关系，提供大量的研究机会。具体地说，它将1)增进对适应气候变化不确定性的气候变化风险的理解，建立损失估计与自然灾害变化模式之间的关系，2)为工程-社会-经济合作提供新的机会，进行气候风险评估，并为气候适应措施的经济评估制定决策框架。这项研究的结果将有助于促进以可持续性为导向的长期规划和短期灾害应对措施/战略，并提供新的、以研究为基础的信息，为具有成本效益的气候变化适应战略的决策进程提供信息。美国和澳大利亚的研究人员之间有足够的利益重叠，这表明他们可以成功地开展拟议的活动，而且这种互动将对双方都有利。此外，两名美国研究生的参与将使他们获得宝贵的国际视角和洞察力。他们还将参加与研究人员就未来合作活动的讨论。

1050443LiThis award supports a planning visit to enable Professor Yue Li at Michigan Technological University to meet with Professor Mark Steward, Director of the Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability in Australian, Professor Garry Willgoose, Director, Centre for Climate Impact Management at the University of Newcastle in Australia and Dr. Xiaoming Wang at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Climate Adaptation Flagship and Sustainable Ecosystems. The goal of the project is to support the development of a collaborative research partnership between the U.S. and Australia for climate-related infrastructure adaptation for resistance to natural hazards. Evidence suggests that natural hazards such as hurricanes (cyclones), snow and heavy precipitation, and flood are expected to change in frequency and intensity with the smallest rise in temperature resulting from climate change. These extreme events can result in severe damage to infrastructure, including buildings, roads, bridges and utilities, especially because current design practice assumes a stationary process and no time-dependent changes to hazard occurrence probabilities. The collaborative research will develop a long-term partnership with numerous research opportunities for U.S. early-career faculty and students. Specifically, it will 1) advance understanding of risks due to climate change that accommodate the uncertainty of climate change and establish the relationship between loss estimation and the changing patterns of natural hazards, and 2) introduce new opportunities for engineering-socioeconomic collaborations on climate risk assessment and develop a decision framework for economic assessment of climate adaptation measures. The results of this research will help to facilitate sustainability-oriented long term planning and short term disaster-response measures/strategies and provide new, research-based information to inform the decision making process for cost-effective climate change adaptation strategies. There is sufficient overlap of interests between researchers in the U.S. and Australia to indicate that they can successfully pursue the activities proposed, and that the interaction will benefit both sides. In addition, the involvement of two U.S. graduate students will enable them to gain a valuable international perspective and insight. They will also participate in discussions on future collaborative activities with the researchers.