This commentary is by Owen Smith, president of AT&T Vermont, and Jessica Filante Farrington, director of global environmental sustainability at AT&T.
Across the nation, communities consistently look for ways to ensure that their infrastructure withstands the test of time. But as state and municipal leaders gaze into the future, climate change presents real, catastrophic risk.
One in three Americans say they have been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the past two years. And 90% of U.S. counties have experienced at least one federal declaration of a climate disaster in the last decade.
It is no different in Vermont, where changes in precipitation, heat, floods, droughts and more continue to affect everything from wildlife and landscapes to communities, businesses and families alike. Municipalities across the state face the challenge of protecting their people against dangerous climate impacts.
Vermont benefits from having proactive leaders. Recently, in his fourth inaugural address, Gov. Phil Scott highlighted climate change’s impact and stated he will prioritize infrastructure funding to “reduce emissions, revitalize old homes, lower energy bills, improve health, and protect communities from flooding.”
But the climate change variable challenges more than just government entities, requiring public/private collaboration and resource-sharing to drive innovative and effective solutions.
The task ahead of us is to help leaders strengthen and upgrade their critical infrastructure — including the roads and bridges we take to work, the schools where our kids learn, and the pipes that carry our water. To build durable infrastructure, communities first need to know exactly what climate challenges they’re up against.
As part of AT&T’s work to address climate change, we teamed up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to develop the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal — ClimRR for short.
ClimRR is a free, publicly accessible portal, providing localized data projections. The tool can empower policymakers, city planners, emergency managers and community leaders to better understand future climate threats, examine infrastructure vulnerabilities, fortify critical facilities and develop adaptation plans.
ClimRR’s interactive maps allow users to see projected local climate conditions 30 years into the future, which is crucial for long-range planning and preparing each community for their “new normal.” For example, if a city’s annual rainfall is projected to significantly increase, leaders can help mitigate impacts by upgrading storm drain systems and flood control plans.
Even more critical for equity considerations, the tool identifies areas where climate hazards are posing risk to specific populations, enabling municipalities to better protect vulnerable residents.
Case examples could include extreme heat analysis layered with community data, enabling equitable plans for cooling centers and community center hours; seasonal businesses making changes in their operating seasons; coastal cities anticipating the impact of flooding and sea-level rise on transportation and building projects; and much more.
For Vermont, ClimRR data shows significant effects of climate changes, including maximum and minimum temperatures in Burlington projected to increase across all seasons, with the average summer temperature projected to increase 5 degrees by midcentury. Total annual precipitation in Burlington is projected to increase around 4 inches by midcentury while the number of consecutive days without precipitation will decrease. This means precipitation could be more frequent.
Increases in both temperature and precipitation, as seen in ClimRR’s outlook for Burlington, signal critical shifts in infrastructure and policy needs — from water management policies and stormwater management to heat advisory usage and combating heat-related illnesses.
AT&T assesses climate factors in its own operations. Risks like flooding, wildfire, drought and wind are integrated into network resilience efforts and infrastructure planning processes. We have accumulated years of experience interpreting the data, which has helped inform the creation of ClimRR to ensure the climate projections are actionable for local communities.
ClimRR is one piece of a larger puzzle, and we encourage Vermont’s state and municipal leaders to check it out, share stories of its use and participate in one of our upcoming virtual training sessions.
Today’s world is interdependent, and resilience can’t be built in a vacuum. From businesses to local leaders to government officials, all of us must work together to discover new strategies and reshape what it means to be resilient.
It’s our hope that all these tools will drive candid conversations about vulnerabilities within our communities. Providing an eye into the future, we can shore up our defenses and build more resilient cities so when the next extreme weather event comes, we’ll be ready.
