Working with Resiliency Consultants to Adapt the Built Environment

Adapt: Climate Change and the Built Environment

Mónika and Jessica talk to Amy Macdonald, Founder & Principal of Ripple Resilience. Formerly a principal and founder of Thornton Tomasetti's Resilience Practice, her career spans four continents, with leadership roles responding to catastrophes including Sandy, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and earthquakes in New Zealand and Nepal. Amy discusses how her experience in disaster recovery has led to her career working with clients to incorporate resilient design, nature-based solutions, and emergency preparations in order to be resilient in the face of climate change and extreme weather events.

Amy explains the benefits of working with a resiliency consultant when working on any projects in the built environment--and the importance of consulting with such an expert early in the process. Amy also discusses how lessons learned from protecting buildings from earthquakes--such as functional recovery and performance-based design--can be applied to the built environment when designing the built environment to be resilient to climate change and extreme weather events.

Links and resources related to this interview include:

Ripple Resilience: Ripple Resilience LLC

Functional recovery post-earthquake: NIST-FEMA Special Publication FEMA P-2090/NIST SP-1254, Recommended Options for Improving the Built Environment for Post-Earthquake Reoccupancy and Functional Recovery Time

Using performance-based design to increase resiliency to climate change: Performance-Based Design Brings Resiliency to the Built Environment | Engineered Systems Magazine (esmagazine.com)