On February 2, NOAA and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will convene the first ASCE-NOAA Leadership Summit. The overarching goal of this ASCE-NOAA partnership is to bring the best available climate change science into the next generation of civil engineering codes, standards, and manuals of practice to make infrastructure more climate resilient. Over the past several months a series of technical workshops between NOAA scientists and ASCE engineers took place, focusing on the key issues of extreme temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, changing winds, and coastal hazards. These workshops, facilitated by a cooperative agreement between the Climate Program Office and the University of Maryland, were key to informing the summit.
With the current ASCE President Maria Lehman and NOAA Administrator Dr. Richard Spinrad presiding, the summit includes panel discussions tackling the issues of climate-resilient infrastructure from different angles and will celebrate the co-signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to signal a more formal commitment by ASCE and NOAA to build a sustained partnership.
Shared objectives of this ASCE-NOAA collaboration are:
- Recommending to NOAA the weather, climate, and coastal ocean information needed by civil engineering practitioners to design, construct and maintain infrastructure
- Prioritizing NOAA information needed by civil engineers and to develop consensus guidance for the civil engineering community
- Identifying gaps related to climate services to help NOAA assist additional partners, stakeholders and decision makers
NOAA representation at the summit will showcase a diversity of talents from across the organization, including program managers, weather and climate information providers, scientists, researchers, data managers, and operational modelers.
The Summit also represents an opportunity to highlight the objectives and importance of the ASCE partnership in the context of NOAA’s vision for building a Climate Ready Nation, and to connect with additional Federal and non-Federal partners in pursuit of more climate-resilient infrastructure across the nation and worldwide.
For more information, contact Ben DeAngelo.
