Schedule

Plenary: Climate Security and the Next 10 Years

Our panel of distinguished thought leaders will share their views on the next 10 years of climate security research and capability needs to support US policymakers domestically and abroad.

Deb Glickson, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Martin Doyle, Duke University

Budhu Bhaduri, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Erin Sikorsky, Center for Climate & Security

Water Security and Global Water Resource Management

Speaker: Brad Doorn, NASA

Water and climate change are inextricably linked. Climate change affects the world’s water in complex ways - from unpredictable rainfall patterns to shrinking ice sheets, rising sea levels, floods and droughts – most impacts of climate change come down to water. To meet this scarcity, in some regions humans are exploiting ground water resources on an unprecedented scale – this has its own unintended consequences. Overall, climate change and climate extremes are exacerbating both water scarcity and water-related hazards (such as floods and droughts), as rising temperatures disrupt precipitation patterns and the entire water cycle globally.

Mike Gremillion, University of Alabama

Megan Konar, University of Illinois

Sam Huston, USAID
Assaf Anyamba, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Coastal Vulnerability and Infrastructure Risk

Speaker: Deb Loomis, US Department of the Navy

Climate change threatens the coast, including Naval installations, urban centers and rural towns, and infrastructure critical to everything from treating sewage to processing and moving energy resources. This session on Coastal Vulnerability and Infrastructure Risk will highlight the many impacts of climate change on coastal communities, from sea level rise to the increase in extreme weather events to saltwater intrusion and flooding. In addition to describing these threats and the challenges of quantifying them, the session will highlight responses and adaptations to changing climate to help ensure the security of coasts and coastal infrastructure.

Hamed Rostamkhani, University of Alabama

Sonke Dangendorf, Tulane University

Kate Brauman, University of Alabama

Jennifer Wozencraft, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center

The Humanitarian Challenge – Water, Human Security, and Climate Migration

Speaker: Lee Schwartz, US Department of State

With climate change and water insecurity causing significant shifts in the environmental landscape through droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and more frequent and unexpected weather extremes, we can expect significant disruptions to human populations, activities, and economic livelihoods. These disruptions will be felt throughout the globe, but are likely to inequitably impact low- and middle-income countries. Many households could be forced to choose between staying in uncertain environmental and economic situations, weathering climate-exacerbated political instability, or migration to more environmentally, economically, or political opportune locations. Understanding the human risks and impacts driving this decision calculus, and how climate and water will result in changes in human dynamics, will help governments better mitigate those impacts and prevent human security concerns from becoming humanitarian crises. This panel will consider the Global Water Challenge’s risks to international migration, potential geopolitical and humanitarian implications of this, and how the US national security community could drive research to preserve stability and human life.

Shannon O’Lear, University of Kansas

Alex de Sherbinin, Columbia University

Marie Urban, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Audrey Lumley-Sapanski, Colorado Mesa University

Science, Data, and Computing to Address the World Water Challenge

Improving our understanding of climate change’s impact on water security will require new investments in science for modeling the water cycle, monitoring water availability, and measuring change from known baselines. Building, integrating, and harmonizing across new and existing datasets; unifying models of groundwater and surface water dynamics; and high-performance computing to understand the rebalancing of Earth’s water cycle amidst shifting precipitation patterns and local weather extremes: each of these are critical components required in closing our knowledge gaps on the Global Water Challenge over the next decade. This panel will reflect on the previous sessions and reiterate the data and science needs, gaps, and opportunities, in context of both US national security needs and global human security needs.

Carrie Stokes, US Agency for International Development

Sarah Arnold, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Chelsea Cervantes DeBlois, US Department of State

Carter Christopher, Oak Ridge National Laboratory