Sasaki
Sasaki principal and landscape architect Mark Dawson, FASLA, presented to members of the United States Congress on the importance of resiliency in undertaking infrastructure overhauls and repairs. Dawson was joined by fellow members of American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Environmental & Energy Study Institute (EESI), a Congress-created independent non-profit.
The presentation, “Green Infrastructure: A Blueprint for Climate Resilient Communities,” focused on the environmental and social opportunities associated with improving national infrastructure, and also shared results from a recent report assembled by the ASLA’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Climate Change and Resilience.
“Climate change exists and likely has been building in impact for many generations,” says Dawson. “Our available data samples are so narrow—reliably covering about 80 years or so—and yet within that period, the frequency of flooding has already increased several-fold. What is today characterized as a 10-year flood event based on 80-year-old data is, in some areas, occurring on an annual basis. These frightening symptoms of our planet’s frailty can be mitigated through intelligent planning and design, but we must first accept the facts of climate change and find how each of us can best contribute to a healthier planet.”
You can read takeaways and view the entire presentation on the EESI’s website.