An estimated 19,200 weather-related disasters worldwide from 1980–2014 caused 850,000 fatalities and $3.3 trillion in damage – amongst these, Boulder’s 2013 flood. The Engineering for Climate Extremes Partnership (ECEP) aims to address a growing need by cities and policy makers by developing tools that provide insights on anticipating and preparing for extreme weather impacts in current and future climates. The ECEP executive is based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and has an ongoing relationship with the City of Boulder.

An ECEP partner, Oak Ridge National Lab, has been developing the Urban-Climate Adaptation Tool (Urban-CAT) in collaboration with the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. Urban-CAT collates and manages publicly accessible data to support storm-water management decisions. This web-based tool allows urban planners to evaluate how different deployments of green infrastructure (e.g., retention basins, porous pavements, etc.) can improve the city’s resilience to costly urban flooding and storm water management for a range of future climate, urban growth, and infrastructure scenarios. Urban-CAT will help communicate how climate change will impact urban infrastructure vulnerability, and allow decision makers to explore the priority and benefits of different adaptation options.

Urban-CAT has the potential to support hazard planning and climate adaptation around the world, but is currently only available to the City of Knoxville. This tool is particularly important for mid-sized cities, which typically have fewer resources or expertise to incorporate climate change into their planning. UR Boulder funding would help evolve the Urban-CAT prototype for application by the City of Boulder, prior to a wider global application. The tool will provide a platform that facilitates communication among Boulder’s policy decision makers and the public, promote science-driven policies and regulations for updating urban infrastructure, help assess and respond to emerging environmental problems, and provide guidance for planning judicious urban development.