Growing a City to Meet Current and Future Needs: What Led to the Urban Resilience Movement

Originally aired April 24, 2015

The first webinar in the “Along the Urban Path” four-part series — a collaborative effort between Arizona State University and The Security and Sustainability Forum — this session serves as a practical primer on urban resiliency. Presenters representing different disciplines explore three resilience mechanisms — social, ecological, and technological — and where they converge, introducing attendees to “urban resilience” through insights from both research and the practitioner perspective.

Speakers

Dr. Nancy B. Grimm (Moderator)

Professor of Ecology; Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Dr. Nancy B. Grimm is a Professor of Ecology in the School of Life Sciences and a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU. Her interdisciplinary research in both urban and stream ecosystems focuses on disturbance, resilience, and biogeochemical processes. Since 1997, she has directed the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research program and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Ecological Society of America.

Joyce Coffee

Managing Director, Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index

Joyce Coffee, LEED AP, is Managing Director of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index for global resilience, which promotes adaptation by identifying the places most vulnerable to extreme weather and climate change and highlighting real-world solutions. Previously, she directed the City of Chicago’s Climate Action Plan and managed water and air resources in the City of Chicago Department of Environment.

Dr. Tom Seager

Professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University

Dr. Tom Seager leads a National Science Foundation-funded project applying game theory to develop new strategies for teaching ethical reasoning skills relevant to sustainability to science and engineering graduate students. He also conducts research in environmental decision analysis and the life-cycle environmental impacts of alternative energy technologies, and joined the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at ASU in 2010.

Dr. Charles Redman

Founding Director, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Dr. Charles Redman joined Arizona State University in 1983, serving as Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Director of the Center for Environmental Studies, and founding director of ASU’s School of Sustainability from 2007–2010. His interests include human impacts on the environment, sustainable landscapes, rapidly urbanizing regions, urban ecology, and environmental education.