Day 3 Program - April 17th

Navigation

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM | Registration & Check-In

Pick up your name badge and program at the check-in table.

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM | Networking Coffee

Enjoy a cup of coffee/tea with your fellow attendees before we begin the program.

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM | Session Block 5

5A: Houston/Harris County Flooding: Assessing Actions to Address Vulnerability

Location: Fiesta Ballroom

  • Description: Rapid urban expansion coupled with extreme climate events has increasing the flood vulnerability across Houston, Texas. This study examines the relationship between environmental transformation and socioeconomic disparities shaping flood exposure in the most flood-prone metropolitan regions in the United States. Integrating FEMA flood hazard maps, National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data from 2001 and 2021, and American Community Survey (ACS) block-group-level socioeconomic indicators, this research employs spatial and statistical analyses to assess changing patterns of exposure and vulnerability. Land cover analysis reveals extensive urban sprawl, with built-up areas increasing by more than 16%—primarily at the expense of pastures, forests, and wetlands—thus amplifying surface runoff and flood susceptibility. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) score derived through Principal Component Analysis, indicate that neighborhoods characterized by low income, high proportions of elderly, disabled, and female-headed households exhibit significantly greater exposure to 100-year and 500-year flood zones. Local Moran’s I results confirm statistically significant clusters of high vulnerability coinciding with FEMA high-risk floodplains, underscoring patterns of spatially embedded environmental injustice. These findings highlight how inequitable urban growth and weak land-use regulation disproportionately endanger marginalized communities. The study proposes a socio-hydrologic integration framework that combines land-cover change, flood exposure, and social vulnerability to guide equity-driven resilience planning. By examining the human–environmental processes behind flood risk, this research advances the understanding of urban flood dynamics and supports policy interventions for socially just and climate-resilient urban futures.

    Presenters: Sharmin Ara (Texas A&M University); Sharmin Akter (City of Norfolk, Virginia); Adam Mathews (Binghamton University, New York)

  • Description: Multifamily housing (MFH) is a significant portion of the housing stock comprising 54 percent of rental housing units (Census). In disaster circles, MFH is recognized as lacking sufficient and effective policy response. Federal disaster finances are lacking, especially in comparison to single-family, owner-occupied units. Foundational research on MFH disaster recovery is either dated or anecdotal. Given MFH – and commercial real estate broadly – is primarily owned for investment purposes, decision-making falls to the owner, establishing interdependency between owners, housing, and renters. This research expands our understanding of variation within the heterogeneous class of MFH and owner types, and rental housing outcomes in disaster recovery. I examine a single event – Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas – chosen for its extensive impact, recency, and sufficient recovery observation period. Analyses examine hazard risk, exposure, short-term disaster impacts, and longer-term recovery trajectories across market-rate MFH differentiated by property, market segment, and owner characteristics. I obtained proprietary longitudinal data on property characteristics and ownership, supplemented by public data sources, enabling the examination of factors influencing property functionality – measured using occupancy rates and tax assessed property values. Key findings highlight repeat flood impacts leading up to Harvey; properties with subsidized units were less at-risk pre-disaster; a post-disaster crowding toward and need for affordable housing; land use density coupled with building design can be effective mitigation tools; and certain owners locally headquartered with greater internal capacity had less short-term impacts.

    Presenters: Wayne Day (Texas A&M University)

  • Description: Property buyouts are widely used as a hazard mitigation strategy to relocate residents to safer areas and reduce future flood damages. Green infrastructure is an established stormwater management tool that can detain and filter runoff while reducing heat island effects through vegetation and permeable surfaces. Focusing on single-family residential properties in Harris County within the Houston metropolitan area, this study examines how flood buyout activity and tree canopy coverage affect nearby tax-assessed property values.

    We measure and disentangle two competing effects of buyouts: (1) potential negative impacts on nearby property values due to signaling future hazard risks, neighborhood depopulation, and disinvestment; and (2) potential resilience benefits to property values through enhanced green infrastructure. Assessor data were obtained from the Harris County Appraisal District, historical buyout information from the Harris County Flood Control District, and tree canopy data from EarthDefine LLC.

    Using a series of panel regression models, our findings indicate that nearby buyout activity may reduce surrounding property values and contribute to a loss of municipal tax base. However, we also find that a property bought out within the past year is associated with higher nearby property values, suggesting a short-term positive effect. Tree canopy coverage appears to mitigate some of the negative impacts of buyout activity on property values. The results point to a potential reduction in the local tax base due to low maintenance of buyout properties in Harris County. While buyout programs may be necessary, we emphasize the importance of post-buyout property maintenance to minimize negative spillover effects.

    Presenters: Ryun Jung Lee (University of Texas at San Antonio); Wayne Day (University of Texas at San Antonio); Alexander Abuabara (Texas A&M University); Galen Newman (Texas A&M University); and Walter Peacock (Texas A&M University)

  • Description: Harris County is setting a new standard for flood resilience - one that encourages innovation and enhances capacity at every level. The Harris County Flood Resilience Plan redefines resilience with a focus on people, equity, and practical action, integrating infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and community-led efforts. The plan takes a multi-system approach (flood mitigation, emergency response, housing, public health, and transportation) to advancing local and regional resilience. The Plan is being built through extensive stakeholder engagement and supported by a thorough data-driven vulnerability assessment, while also augmenting ongoing efforts to mitigate flooding throughout the county. Ultimately, the Plan identifies systemic risks and targets strategies that enable communities to grow and thrive beyond just recovering. This presentation will examine how the Plan shapes a path to transform our approach to flood resilience in one of the nation’s most flood-prone areas.

    Presenters: Chris Levitz (AECOM); Priya Zachariah (Harris County Flood Control District); Tatum Lau (AECOM)

5C: Here Comes the Sun: A Look at Heat Mapping, Mitigation, and Benefit Evaluation

Location: Crockett Room West

  • Description: This session will address how heat resilience can be strengthened through innovative built-environment strategies; methodical heat mapping and intervention implementation outcomes; and evaluation of the benefits and costs of various heat resilience strategies. Attendees will gain knowledge of key heat mitigation tools and resources, costs, and exclusive insight into how cities are embracing heat mapping, mitigation, and developing new policies and programs.

    Speakers in this session will explore solar-reflective “cool” building envelopes and surfaces as key strategies for bolstering resilience to extreme heat. A unique tool for comparing and selecting heat reduction solutions based on effectiveness, benefits, and costs will also be explored. The session will include an overview of the results of Louisville, KY’s 2015 heat mapping study, the interventions completed over the past decade, and the findings of a 2025 study to evaluate their effectiveness as well as the health impacts of extreme heat.

    Presenters: Maria Koetter (CoolSeal LLC); Iona Isachsen (Smart Surfaces Coalition).

5B: Preserving and Protecting Culture in a Changing Climate

Location: Crockett Room East

  • Description: This session will provide an overview of the Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan created for the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and review the data and strategies conducted to understand their risk to extreme natural hazards and how they can increase their adaptative capacity as they work to bring new economic opportunities to their community and the public. The tribal leadership will highlight their expansive forest management and will discuss how their long leaf pine ecosystem restoration plays into the balance of preserving their lands and culture with providing growth and development opportunities. Attendees will gain insights into the unique opportunities and challenges tribal communities have in designing and implementing development projects and the special considerations taken in these specific projects to enhance the Tribe’s resilience and overall prosperity. Topics will include hazard analysis, risk reduction, adaptation planning, land use planning, funding opportunities, environmental management and social equity in building community resilience.

    Presenters: Melissa Beaudry (Halff); Gesse Bullock (Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas)

  • Description: Increased extreme weather events and changing climate zones imperil tangible heritage collections. The cultural infrastructure (i.e. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums or GLAMs) housing this material culture is increasingly prioritizing resilience in strategic planning efforts. Researchers from Louisiana State University and Arizona State University are aiding these cultural stewards to make informed decisions as they shift to a proactive strategy. Over the last three years, the Providing Risk of the Environment’s Changing Climate Threats for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (PROTECCT-GLAM) project has collected and analyzed Geographic Information System (GIS) data to develop an open access, multifactor climate risk assessment projection scale. The initial resulting data set, pending publication, focuses on tropical cyclone occurrence and flooding risk in the continental US Gulf South Region. Now in its second phase, the applied research project is expanding to incorporate and analyze socioeconomic and existing resilience factors for the 20% most at-risk facilities. This presentation will provide a snapshot of the project’s results to date, access via public GIS interface, and developing progress.

    Presenters: Erin Voisin (Louisiana State University); Dr. Edward Benoit, III (Louisiana State University, School of Information Studies); Dr. Jill Trepanier (Louisiana State University, Department of Geography and Anthropology); Dr. Jennifer Vanos (Arizona State University).

  • Descriptions: Coastal communities have always been at risk of natural hazards such as floods, tropical cyclones, and other severe weather; however, climate change has and will continue to exacerbate this risk. As global sea levels rise at unprecedented rates and coastal populations continue to grow, more people will be exposed to coastal hazards. Coastal communities, such as those in Louisiana, are among the first in the United States to experience displacement due to modern-day climate change. This type of displacement, caused by the changing effects of the environment, such as coastal erosion, land loss, and flooding, can be defined as climate migration. Certain populations will decide to move inland, relocating themselves to more climate-resilient communities; however, little is known about what makes a desirable climate-resilient community. What characteristics make a community appealing to climate migrants in Louisiana? This study measures the following five socioeconomic characteristics of resilient receiving communities: affordable housing availability, public transportation, quality education, access to health care, and economic opportunities. Based on these characteristics and hazard risk, Louisiana’s most favorable receiving communities were ranked. Future research may seek to apply this methodology to diverse geographies.

    Presenters: Sadé Miller (Louisiana State University)

  • Description: Indigenous and rural coastal communities across the Gulf region face compounding climate hazards, including sea-level rise, intensifying storms, and long-term recovery challenges following extreme events. To support community-driven resilience planning and action, Louisiana Sea Grant partnered with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT), a state-recognized Tribal community in coastal Louisiana, to co-develop and pilot a Tribal Coastal Resilience Index (TCRI). The TCRI was developed through a transdisciplinary, co-production process that integrated Tribal Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with participatory methods including focus groups, interviews, and mapping exercises. This approach enabled the Tribe to define locally meaningful indicators of resilience that reflect lived experience, cultural priorities, and place-based knowledge alongside conventional resilience concepts. The project unfolded in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida (2021), allowing the TCRI to be applied within a real-world recovery and adaptation context. A facilitated TCRI workshop with PACIT identified both community strengths and critical gaps in resilience capacity. Importantly, the process was designed to move beyond assessment toward action. Based on workshop outcomes, the Tribe and project team prioritized and implemented tangible resilience enhancements, including strengthening a bulkhead and boat docking area used during storm events and retrofitting vulnerable homes to better withstand wind impacts. These improvements directly enhanced protection of critical infrastructure, housing, and livelihoods for Tribal members reliant on fishing and marine access. This presentation will describe the co-production process used to develop the TCRI, summarize key resilience outcomes achieved through its application, and highlight lessons learned for scaling the tool to other Indigenous and frontline coastal communities. The TCRI offers a transferable, community-centered framework that links locally defined resilience indicators to actionable adaptation investments, supporting more equitable and effective climate resilience planning across the Gulf region and beyond.

    Presenters: Matthew Bethel (Louisiana Sea Grant)

5D: Student-Engaged Resilience Research to Build the Future Workforce

Location: Bowie Room East

  • Description: This new NSF EPSCoR funded project is a collaboration between the University of Oklahoma, the University of New Mexico, and the Chickasaw Nation. The project objectives are to collaboratively develop research related to air-water-land climate and environmental change that is relevant to Tribal and Indigenous communities; recognize and support the role of indigenous knowledges related to climate and environmental change in Tribal and Indigenous planning; inspire students to pursue higher education in fields related to climate and environmental change; empower educators to braid Indigenous knowledges and Western science in their teaching; and build and sustain trusting relationships between universities and Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos and their partners. Relationships are at the heart of this project, and in this presentation, we describe the project process and objectives in more detail as well as sharing early results, successes, and challenges in building resilient futures in partnership with Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos in Oklahoma and New Mexico with a focus on air and water research and resilience. A complementary presentation from team members will discuss the Education aspects of the project in further detail.

    Presenters: Emma Kuster (Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma); Elinor Martin (School of Meteorology, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma); Renee McPherson (Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma); Marcela Loria-Salazar (School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma); Sharon Hausam (South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma); Jennie Mosely (Chickasaw Nation); Amelia Cook (Chickasaw Nation, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Oklahoma); Lani Tsinnajinnie (Department of Community and Regional Planning, University of New Mexico); Leola Paquin (Department of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico); Elspeth Iralu (Department of Community and Regional Planning, University of New Mexico)

  • Description: There is a growing demand for professionals with the skills needed to work in the climate adaptation and resilience arena—particularly in the South-Central U.S., one of the most disaster-prone regions in the country. The Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program’s (SCIPP) research and engagement with communities also show that city, county, and local organizations are often in need of additional support to address weather and climate-related challenges.

    In May 2025, SCIPP launched its Summer Internship Program, designed to meet both needs: bolster local capacity to respond to weather-related impacts, and build the next generation workforce. Through a matching process with local host organizations across the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, undergraduate students at the University of Oklahoma were given the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge and contribute directly to local projects. By immersing students in roles that connect meteorology, environmental science, policy, planning, sustainability and community outreach, the program contributed to cultivating the next generation of resilience practitioners. Concurrently, participating organizations gained valuable technical support to implement solutions, such as improved communication outputs, targeted outreach, data tools, and analyses. SCIPP’s internship can be used as a case study example to inspire creative opportunities for workforce development and local capacity-building across the SCCRF region and beyond. A formal evaluation of the internship was conducted and revealed broader societal impacts and implications. Results of the evaluation report will be shared in the presentation.

    Presenters: Caylah Cruickshank (Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program)

  • Description: “Connecting with Community” was the guiding theme of our inaugural, multi-state internship to cultivate relationships and shared learning among students and community members interested in weaving together Indigenous and Western approaches for community-driven climate adaptation. We called the program Indigenous Kinship Circle for Climate Futures as kinship is our guiding value and a practical approach for climate adaptation. During the program, undergraduate and graduate students from Oklahoma and New Mexico embarked on a learning journey to explore climate science, Indigenous planning and design, and community-based adaptation practices. Guided by the Two-Eyed Seeing framework, students engaged with climate-related concepts through both Indigenous and Western perspectives and developed a deeper understanding of how these knowledge systems can inform one another. Over the summer, students also participated in PhotoVoice to capture their learning journey as they learned about climate change and co-developed an adaptation project with a local community. The internship spans across two summers, with the first summer focused on building knowledge and community partnerships and the second focused on implementing a community-led project. As part of this brief presentation, we will showcase the power of collaborative internships for fostering intercultural and intergenerational discussions and share preliminary results from our research on how students experience this type of learning and the implications for educators. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and is a collaborative effort between the University of Oklahoma, The Chickasaw Nation, and the University of New Mexico.

    Presenters: Emma Kuster (University of Oklahoma, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center); Amelia Cook (Chickasaw Nation)

  • Description: This talk seeks feedback on planning and preliminary findings for a research-to-action partnership involving San Antonio (TX) college students, emergency manager, and neighborhood groups – a project to develop evidence-informed, hyperlocal campaigns to prompt diverse residents’ awareness and action for the unflagging risk of flooding.

    Located in Flash Flood Alley, the Alamo City has a history of devastating floods which have dramatically shaped the local built environment, political landscape, and social fabric. In the most recent catastrophic flood (June 11-12, 2025), thirteen people died. During heavy rainstorms in the area (common in hurricane season), the ground cannot handle the rapid runoff due to shallow clayey soil, limestone bedrock, and widespread paving, as well as limited infrastructure. Climate change threatens to increase flood frequency and intensity.

    In collaboration with community partners, students from the public health program at Texas A&M University-San Antonio are investigating flood risk perception and preparedness among residents of two contrasting neighborhoods. The first is an affluent predominantly non-Hispanic neighborhood next to the San Antonio River in the city’s center. The second is a working class predominantly Hispanic neighborhood on the historically under-resourced southside of the city.

    Working with the Health Belief Model, the team are examining perceptions about flood risk, preparedness benefits and barriers, and self-efficacy to prepare, as well as cues that might inspire a person to act (e.g., create an evacuation plan, sign up for local alerts, purchase flood insurance). With study findings, students will help develop neighborhood-specific outreach campaigns to strengthen community resilience to flooding.

    Presenters: Monica Schoch-Spana; Amanda Calapan - student (Texas A&M University - San Antonio)

5E: Interdisciplinary Modeling and Tools for Building Socioecological Resilience in Texas and Beyond

Location: Bowie Room West

  • Description: Earth’s biosphere - living organisms and the ecosystems they inhabit - is undoubtedly the most complex of the planetary subsystems to understand, much less to project the future implications of climate change with certainty. Fundamental to understanding the potential biospheric impacts of climate change is the appreciation of the current state of ecosystem resilience, specifically that humans have reduced ecosystem functional integrity to the point of extreme vulnerability to climate shifts and extremes. In Texas, the situation is an extension of the global crisis. Texas currently leads the U.S. in population growth, gaining over half a million new residents in just the last four years. Over 80% of Texas is classified as “working lands” that support crop production, livestock grazing and farm operations and are important for species conservation. Streamflows in at least 75% of rivers in Texas are declining, and with projected water demands and new infrastructures, pressures on surface and groundwaters will only increase. With continued stress on these systems, the perceived benefits humans receive from the environment in the form of ecosystem services will be affected. In this presentation, we examine the potential effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services in Texas and the growing need for building social-ecological resilience. Through exploration of the projected shifts in the operating states of ecosystems and how that will affect the function of both the system and the species within, we identify priorities for adapting and building resilience to climate change in integrated social-ecological systems.

    Presenters: Levi Sweet-Breu; Ryan A. McManamay (Baylor University)

  • Description: Texas faces growing challenges from extreme events like droughts, dust storms, and wildfires, which are being intensified by rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and changing land use. Our talk overviews how these hazards have shaped Texas in the past, including the droughts of the 1950s and 2010-2015, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the 2011 dust storms, and major wildfire outbreaks such as the 2011 wildfire season. It also synthesizes modeling studies to assess how these extremes may evolve in the future. Projections suggest that droughts will likely worsen, dust activity could intensify in drier regions, and wildfire risk is likely to rise as heat and dryness increase. However, uncertainty remains due to differences among models and methods used for tracking these events. Overall, the evidence highlights the need for stronger monitoring systems, improved modeling tools, and adaptive management strategies to prepare Texas for a future shaped by climate extremes.

    Presenters: Yang Li (Baylor University)

  • Description: Public support for climate action is shaped not only by what people believe, but by how those beliefs track lived climate experience. However, experience is rarely measured in ways that are comparable to survey questions, and gaps between perception and observation are often treated descriptively rather than modeled as a dynamic process. This talk introduces a transferable, analytic framework called Perception Delta Instrumentation (PDI) that links climate survey items to place based instrumental indicators derived from gridded climatology. Developed as part of an NSF funded, multi-institutional collaboration spanning Idaho, Nevada, and South Carolina (https://wherewelive.org), the approach is adaptable to Texas relevant hazards at multiple spatial scales, including cities, counties, and watersheds. PDI combines question specific observed climate metrics, such as frequency, timing, and duration of climate or fire weather conditions, with Likert scale perceptions to quantify alignment gaps across space and time. To separate persistent offsets from short term volatility, we treat PDI as time-series and use ARIMA based diagnostics to characterize temporal dependence and event linked departures. We illustrate the approach using survey responses from six Idaho communities paired with climate and fire weather variables sampled at multiple spatial scales, including a representative grid cell and a ten-mile buffer. Results reveal substantial heterogeneity in perception alignment across places and questions and suggest pathways for targeted, locally grounded communication. The PDI framework is portable to other survey instruments and hazards, providing a general method to quantify perception/instrumentation alignment in climate risk research and practice.

    Presenters: Erich Seamon (Baylor University)

  • Description: ThriveMap is a governance-first geospatial framework designed to support Indigenous-led environmental evolution within lived landscapes. Reconciliation ecology asks how human-dominated spaces can sustain ecological integrity alongside cultural continuity. Yet, in many climate adaptation initiatives, advanced environmental intelligence systems, powered by high-resolution remote sensing, time-series analysis, and predictive modeling, remain externally designed and structurally disconnected from Indigenous governance. ThriveMap responds to this gap by integrating community-defined indicators with satellite-based environmental monitoring and modular spatial analysis within a consent-driven governance structure. Rather than positioning Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as static or historical, the framework recognizes Indigenous stewardship as dynamic, shaped by ancestral memory, present realities, and future-oriented design. This work advances a governance-centered approach to geospatial system design that emphasizes capacity transfer, ethical data stewardship, and community interpretation across temporal scales. ThriveMap positions tribes and rural communities not as observers of the technical revolution in environmental modeling, but as architects within it and capable of applying high-accuracy, high- resolution tools in ways that align with their own ecological values and bioregional priorities. Further, its conceptual foundations form a pathway toward sovereignty-informed, technologically rigorous solutions in an era of accelerating climate instability.

    Presenters: Theresa Yellow Bear Tsoodle (Independent Researcher, Doctoral Track – Reconciliation Ecology)

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM | Networking Break

Snacks and coffee/tea will be provided.

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM | Session Block 6

6A: Redefining Resiliency: Diverse Perspectives, Case Studies, and Interactive Dialogues on Redundancy-Based Climate Strategies

Location: Fiesta Ballroom

  • Description: This 90-minute symposium reframes “resiliency” through redundancy-based climate strategies—approaches that use layered systems, backup pathways, and adaptive planning to ensure continuity during floods, droughts, heat waves, and other extreme conditions. Emphasizing the built environment, the session examines how architecture, urban design, and infrastructure can provide dependable foundations for climate adaptation across the South-Central United States.

    A multidisciplinary panel of faculty, researchers, and directors from Texas and neighboring states will present case studies demonstrating how redundancy strengthens both systems and communities. Examples include Louisiana’s Community Lighthouse microgrids that maintain power during outages, El Paso’s diversified water-supply strategies, Houston’s hybrid green–gray flood-management networks, and Oklahoma’s resilient building codes. Together, these examples show how redundancy—integrated through buildings, landscapes, and urban networks—mitigates cascading risks and enhances long-term livability.

    The symposium follows a workshop-style sequence beginning with framing questions on how resiliency is understood across disciplines. Short presentations will introduce regional strategies, followed by interactive roundtable discussions. Participants will collaboratively identify architectural and planning actions that embed redundancy within housing, public buildings, and urban systems, including energy, water, mobility, and ecological frameworks.

    By the conclusion, attendees will co-develop a Regional Redundancy Framework for Resilient Systems that connects design innovation, policy guidance, and community-based perspectives. The session supports the Forum’s goals of strengthening regional cooperation and advancing resilience planning by offering practical, adaptable, and equitable strategies for climate-ready environments in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

    Presenters: Maryam Singery (University of Texas at San Antonio); Anna Morton Rivera, P.E. (University of Texas at San Antonio); Jonathan Kraatz (US Green Building Council Texas Chapter); Michelle E. Garza (San Antonio River Authority); Hazem Rashid Ali (University of Kennesaw)

6B: People and Place: How Resilience Hubs Networks Expand Services and Support Communities

Location: Crockett Room East

  • Description: Communities across the country have been working to establish place-based resilience hubs that serve residents every day and provide emergency support during extreme events. However, these single facilities don’t always achieve the wide-ranging resilience benefits they hoped for. A broader, more integrated, approach is needed to truly strengthen the entire community.

    Resilience Hub Networks are built around people with strong and trusted relationships. When functioning as a network, the distributed, interconnected, and organized facilities provide differentiated services and support each other during times of crisis. They anchor neighborhood scale investments in community services and support the community serving organizations that are already working in historically underserved segments of the community.

    This session is about more than organizations, it is about people. The community champions and leaders who work tirelessly to improve their communities, address community concerns on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, and work together to create networks to enhance resilience.

    In the session, participants will hear the stories of struggle and success and get a glimpse behind the scenes at what it really takes to build, invest in, and strengthen the resilience network of both people and facilities. Presenters from Austin, San Antonio, and Maui (virtually) will lead the discussion and share insights from their efforts over the past few years. Through a mix of presentations and interactive dialogue, participants will leave with actionable insights and next steps to establish a resilience hub network in their communities.

    Presenters: Marc Coudert (City of Austin); Kate Jaceldo (City of San Antonio); Makale'a Ane (Living Pono Project); Sascha Petersen (Adaptation International)

6C: Visioning the Future: Creating the Present [WORKSHOP]

Location: Crockett Room West

  • Description: Tane Ward will lead an interactive workshop designed to bring people into conversation and play in order to address the intersecting problems of climate change and social conflict. We will focus on visioning the future we want to see, how our values form the basis of our work, processing grief in the face of climate catastrophe and how to navigate the importance of culture. This workshop will inform our work in planning, organizing and community engagement. It is great for anyone working with community in any capacity.

    Dr. Ward has extensive organizing experience as well as extensive planning and community engagement experience. He trains and facilitates workshops on equity and environmentalism, planning and community engagement, and decolonization. He has worked with county and city governments across Texas and managed and directed a number of NGO’s and organizing projects. Currently he facilitates the statewide Environmental Justice coalition TEJED. This year he authored the Harris County Climate Justice Plan and facilitated all community engagement meetings for the county; he also facilitated meetings for the Port of Houston. Tane Ward is the author of several books and an award-winning performer.

    Presenters: Tane Ward (Independent)

6D: Tropicalization of the Temperate Zone: Emerging Temperature Regimes and Their Climate-Health Implications

Location: Bowie Room East

  • Description: Tropicalization, a term rooted in ecology, refers to the transformation of temperate ecosystems as warming temperatures, particularly during winter, enable tropical (and subtropical) species to expand poleward. This session brings together diverse perspectives to highlight observational evidence of tropicalization in the Southeastern United States and its implications for ecosystems, human health, and climate resilience.

    The first presentation, “Longer Summers and Shorter Winters: Impacts of Tropicalization in the Southeastern United States?”, will examine the atmospheric mechanisms that drive cold-air outbreaks, highlighting a few extreme events, and explore how these processes may shift under continued warming. The second presentation, “Tropicalization of the Temperate Zone,” will quantify changes in winter and cool-season temperatures at practitioner-relevant scales and demonstrate a new tool designed to make these data accessible to stakeholders. Next, “Analysis of Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature with Implications for Human Health and Comfort” will introduce a spatial climatology of wet-bulb globe temperature, highlighting regions where dangerous heat conditions already occur and how these hazards are expanding into other months not typically associated with heat, particularly May and October. The session will conclude with “Tropicalization’s Cascading Impacts on Human Health and Well-being,” which will describe an interdisciplinary initiative that connects climate scientists, ecologists, and public health experts to address the accelerating impacts of tropicalization across the Southeast. The goal of the session is to bring together evidence, tools, and collaborative frameworks that help communities and practitioners understand, anticipate, and respond to a rapidly tropicalizing climate.

    Presenters: Barry Keim (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program); Vincent Brown (Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, Louisiana State University); Derek Thompson (Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, Louisiana State University; Scott Hemmerling (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program)

6E: Building Resilience to Water Resource Deficits in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

Location: Bowie Room West

  • Description: Availability of water to residents, and the $1 billion agriculture industry of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), is a function of rain that falls across the tributary and runoff regions of northern Mexico and Texas, which is stored in reservoirs and then released downstream. The distribution of water along the Lower Rio Grande between Mexico and the United States is governed by the Water Treaty of 1944. Amistad and Falcon International Reservoirs contain the highest proportion of available water available for the LRGV. From the early 2010s to the mid-2020s, low water levels have dominated - a function of accelerated warming and evaporation. During this time, municipal and agricultural needs have increased exponentially. From late 2023 through 2025, record to near-record low combined storage was observed - and water restrictions have proliferated.

    Hoping for reservoir-filling rains from a hurricane is not a water management strategy. Hope exists through the "Five-ations" of successful water resource management: Conservation, (Smart) Irrigation, Reclamation, Desalination, and Innovation. Recent symposia and a Texas Constitutional amendment have addressed the looming water crisis. We will provide recent data and forecast outcomes as background for the urgent need to address the crisis, followed by concrete examples of efforts to address many of the "Five -ations".

    Barry Goldsmith will provide temperature, evaporation, and reservoir data and forecast trends of each. Dr. Maria-Elena Giner will provide a private-sector view of future water resiliency in South Texas. David Fuentes will provide an update on the Delta Reclamation Project in Hidalgo County.

    Presenters: Barry Goldsmith (NOAA National Weather Service Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley); Maria-Elena Giner, Ph.D., P.E., MBA (Black and Veatch); David Fuentes (Hidalgo County Texas Commissioner, Precinct 1)

12:00 PM - 12:15 PM | Short Break

Transition to the Fiesta Ballroom for the Closing Plenary.

12:15 PM - 12:45 PM | Closing Plenary

Location: Fiesta Ballroom