Monday, August 7, 2023 | 9:00 am – 9:45 am

"Weather and the Planetary State in a Changing Climate"

The increases in the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane pose two very different challenges. The sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are multiple and carbon dioxide’s lifetime in the atmosphere is long; whereas, the sources of methane are relatively few in type and the sinks are almost exclusively the result of chemical interaction in the atmosphere, which results in a relatively short life-time (roughly a decade). These differences set an important portion of policy stage. In addressing the context of these increases, one must also incorporate the Carbon-Climate system and the feedbacks within that system as well as acknowledging that changes are happening faster than previously expected.

Implications: Change is happening and the political processes are responding. The  recent Report of the President Council of Advisors on Science and Technology: “Extreme Weather Risk in a Changing Climate: Enhancing prediction and protecting communities” poses both explicit and implicit challenges to the participants at the ASCE International Low Impact Development Conference 2023. These challenges will be highlighted and summarized.

Dr. Berrien Moore III

Dean, College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences | Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies | Director, National Weather Center

Dr. Berrien Moore III is an internationally recognized Earth scientist who has been honored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 1963 from the University of North Carolina and his PhD in Mathematics in 1969 from the University of Virginia.

Berrien Moore III joined the University of New Hampshire (UNH) mathematics faculty in 1969 and became a tenured professor in 1976. He was recognized by UNH in 1992 for research excellence and was named University Distinguished Professor in 1997. From 1987 to 2008, Moore served for as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at UNH. During his period at UNH, Moore also held numerous visiting scientist positions including visiting Senior Scientist at the Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie Marines at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and at the Institute of Meteorology at the University of Stockholm. Earlier, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and as a Fellow at the Marine Policy and Ocean Management Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

In February 2008, Moore left UNH to serve as the founding Executive Director of Climate Central, a think-tank based in Princeton, New Jersey, which is dedicated to providing objective and understandable information about climate change.

In the summer of 2010, Moore joined the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies. He also serves as Dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, Director of the National Weather Center, and Vice President for Weather and Climate Programs.

Monday, August 7, 2023 | 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm

"Green Health Infrastructure"

Optimizing the relationship between the built and natural environment in a rapidly urbanizing world likely represents the greatest opportunity to affect human health. While much is known about “green infrastructure” as a tool for providing ecosystem services, less is known about the “dose” relationships to health outcomes. Dr. Smith will provide an overview of the Green Heart Louisville project. This is the largest interventional, controlled clinical trial assessing the impact of greenery on health in urban neighborhoods. The project is testing the hypothesis that increasing greenness will reduce the levels of air pollution, and decrease the risk of heart disease.
 

Theodore "Ted" R. Smith, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil | Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Louisville School of Medicine

Ted Smith is an Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and serves as Director of the Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute. His research focuses on place-based clinical insight for preventing or reducing the burden of disease and promoting health in all of its forms.

Dr. Smith was previously the Chief of Civic Innovation for the City of Louisville, KY and directed the largest real-time asthma surveillance project, AIRLouisville, from 2012-2016. Dr. Smith co-founded the Envirome Institute in 2018 and joined as a research associate professor. He is responsible for a portfolio of ancillary studies for the Institute’s five-year interventional place-based “greening” clinical trial called the Green Heart Louisville Project.

Since June 2020, Dr. Smith has led the wastewater monitoring component of the COVID-19 Louisville Metro Health Department COVID-19 Testing Taskforce. His environmental medicine research also includes human space health, and he serves as a member of NASA’s Translation Research Institute for Space Health scientific advisory board. He was a co-Investigator on the 1998 NASA Neurolab mission.  Ted received his B.S. in Biology and Psychology from Allegheny College, his M.S. and PhD in Experimental Psychology from Miami University and completed his post-doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tuesday, August 8, 2023 | 9:00 am – 10:00 am

"National Perspective on Accelerating Green Infrastructure Implementation"

Existing challenges for implementing green infrastructure and stormwater management still exist.  Robyn will discuss current national efforts and future opportunities to accelerate the implementation of green infrastructure and LID practices. With a historic amount of money going toward climate resilience and water infrastructure improvements there is more opportunity to pay for green infrastructure than ever before.  Communication, collaboration and quantification are key elements to making the case to build nature-based projects. She will address how these principles can help communities adapt to extreme weather events and achieve other multiple benefits through examples.  Robyn will also highlight regulatory and voluntary efforts to equitably improve our local streams, lakes and rivers using green infrastructure and stormwater management tools and resources. 

Robyn DeYoung, MA

Lead of Green Infrastructure Program at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Office of Wastewater Management

Robyn is U.S. EPA’s Green Infrastructure and Integrated Planning Lead in the Office of Wastewater Management. She leads a team that runs U.S EPA’s Campus RainWorks, National Webinar Series, resources for stormwater managers and provides guidance on using green infrastructure to meet clean water goals. In 2021 she launched a robust cross-agency effort to re-establish the Green Infrastructure Federal Collaborative that is implementing the Whitehouse’s Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap.

Robyn DeYoung started working at U.S. EPA in 2010. She started her federal career with the State and Local Climate and Energy Program. For 9 years Robyn developed quantification tools and regularly collaborated with state and local governments to make the case for sustainability initiatives, such as green infrastructure, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.  Robyn was on the technical workgroup for the Clean Power Plan and developed methods for estimating the air emission impacts of clean energy programs and incorporating them in Clean Air Act compliance plans.

In 2015, she led a cross-office effort to quantify air, health and water impacts of green roofs for Kansas City, MO and published a report with a replicable framework for other jurisdictions to adopt.

In 2019, Robyn joined the Office of Wastewater Management as the integrated planning lead.  Robyn wrote a Report to Congress on Integrated Stormwater and Wastewater Planning to comply with the 2019 Water Infrastructure Improvement Act and provide technical assistance to communities getting started with developing their own integrated plan.  Her leadership and dedication eventually led to being promoted as the Green Infrastructure and Integrated Planning Lead.

Prior to joining the U.S. EPA, Robyn worked at the Ohio EPA Air Pollution Division for over three years, where she developed and managed a state-wide Emission Reduction Credit Trade and Banking Program for sources complying with New Source Review. She also developed Ohio’s State GHG inventory, collaborated with the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Public Utility Commission staff on climate change policy development.

Tuesday, August 8, 2023 | 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm

"Historical Overview of the USEPA’s Urban Watershed Management Research Program"

Richard Field, MCE, Chi Epsilon Nat'l CE Honor Society,  PE NY & N J, D.WRE (by Eminence), BCEE (by Eminence), M.ASCE

Retired Environmental / Water Resources Engineer / 2023 Urban Water Resources Research Council Founders’ Award Recipient

Richard Field's contributions to the urban water resources field and related research are extensive and provided national and international direction. His notable research and leadership have advanced engineering and science in the profession.

Through his 54 years of combined service with the USEPA, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, NYCDEP,  Michael Baker Int'l and various other consulting firms, Rich has developed and implemented the best practices for urban water resources protection. 

His greatest contributions came as a engineer and research leader in his 42 years with the USEPA's Urban Watershed Management Branch (UWMB), Edison, NJ where  Rich developed,  ascertained funding for, and directed approximately 600 research, development and/or demonstration projects including but not limited to:  quality and quantity characterization, watershed/sewershed modeling, best management practices, roadway deicing, real-time control, in-line/off-line flow routing and storage, treatment and disinfection of combined and sanitary sewer overflow and urban stormwater runoff.

His direction and advocacy for research has resulted in over 1,000 R&D reports and more than 500 of a combination of peer-reviewed journal articles, conference/seminar papers and proceedings, posters, books and book chapters, films, and magazine and other related publications. Rich has authored or co-authored over 900 of the aforementioned publications himself. His expertise has been sought and used nationally and worldwide and he's presented over 800 invited keynote addresses, conference papers, lectures, and organized seminars and served on numerous panels, committees, and councils. 

Prior to retirement in 2018 Rich was a very active member of ASCE-EWRI and  UWRRC.  For several years he Chaired the UWRRC and the Urban Watershed Management Standing Committee and other Committees. He was an active participant in conference planning, e.g., EWRI Congresses, Stormwater Symposium, various specialty conferences, and the internationally recognized long-term UWMB seminar series in Edison,  NJ.

Rich was an advocate for students and post-docs.  Scott Struck and Shirley Clark two of his post-doctoral researchers were or are presently President of EWRI, respectively.

For his numerous outstanding achievements and contributions Rich has been the recipient of many awards, medals and accolades both nationally and internationally including but by far not limited to: the ASCE  1976 State of the Art for Civil Engineering Award,  the UWRRC 2002 Award for Long-Standing Contribution to the Improvement of Urban Stormwater Management in the US and Around the World and to Our Council, the WEF NYWPCA Award for Outstanding Technical Peer-Reviewed Technical Publication, and a host of awards and medals from his past employers.
 

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 | 8:00 am – 8:30 am

"Expanding the Engineering With Nature® Lattice"

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) describes Engineering With Nature (EWN) as the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental and social benefits through collaboration.   In recent years, the USACE’s EWN Program has grown exponentially to include a diverse network of organizations and activities that are advancing use of nature-based solutions.  This talk will offer information about EWN and ways the program is expanding to achieve implementation of nature-based solutions for the purpose of creating greater resilience for communities and military installations.

Jeff King, Ph.D., P.E.

National Lead, USACE Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program

Dr. Jeffrey King is the national lead for the USACE EWN program. Prior to this role Jeff served as deputy national lead and program manager for the USACE EWN initiative from 2016 to 2023. In addition to managing a broad array of EWN activities and collaborative efforts, Dr. King is also advancing research and development projects within the EWN portfolio.

Current research interest include:

• Incorporation of EWN techniques/designs as a novel approach to traditional infrastructure;
• Design and application of natural-nature based features (NNBF);
• Promoting landscape architecture concepts/practices in pursuit of nature-based solutions; and
• Fostering collaborative partnerships to achieve innovative outcomes that are aligned with elements of the EWN Initiative.

Before joining the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and EWN, Jeff was the Acting Director and Deputy Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, from 2011 through 2016. Before his time at NOAA, Jeff served in the USACE Savannah District from 2004 through 2011 within the district Regulatory and Planning Divisions. Jeff was also a research scientist with Westinghouse at the Savannah River National Laboratory and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. He received a BS from Florida State University in biochemistry, an MS from Johns Hopkins University in clinical/environmental toxicology, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jeff is a registered Professional Engineer in Georgia and South Carolina.