At The Conversation, Thaddeus R. Miller and Mikhail Chester write—6 rules for rebuilding infrastructure in an era of ‘unprecedented’ weather events
Unfortunately, Harvey delivered and then some with early estimates of the damage at over US$190 billion, which would make it the costliest storm in U.S. history. The rain dumped on the Houston area by Harvey has been called “unprecedented,” making engineering and floodplain design standards look outdated at best and irresponsible at worst.
But to dismiss this as a once-in-a-lifetime event would be a mistake. With more very powerful storms forming in the Atlantic this hurricane season, we should know better. We must listen to those telling a more complicated story, one that involves decades of land use planning and poor urban design that has generated impervious surfaces at a fantastic pace.
As the Houston region turns its attention to rebuilding and other cities consider ramping up efforts to make their infrastructure more resilient, it is this story that can provide valuable lessons for policymakers, planners, engineers, developers and the public. These lessons are all the more important against the backdrop of a Trump administration that has stripped requirements for infrastructure projects to consider climate impacts and may try to offer an infrastructure investment package. [...]
Here are six rules for investing in infrastructure for the 21st century that recognize the need to rethink how we design and operate our infrastructure.
If we design with the technologies, needs and climate conditions of the 20th century, we will no longer serve society and the hazards we will encounter now and in the future.
Proactive maintenance first. [...]
Invest in and redesign institutions, not just infrastructure [...]
Design for climate change. [...]
Manage infrastructure as interconnected and interdependent. [...]
Create flexible infrastructure. [...]
Design infrastructure for everyone. Large disasters almost always highlight systemic social inequalities in our communities, as we saw in the 1995 Chicago heat wave, Hurricane Katrina and now Hurricane Harvey.
Yet as cities rebuild and other cities watch to glean lessons, we consistently sidestep the historical legacies, public policies and political-economic structures that continue to make low-income and minority populations, such as homeless people, more vulnerable to extreme weather events. For this to change, infrastructure must be designed with the most vulnerable in mind first.
Too often the services delivered by climate-resilient infrastructure are first built for the communities that have the economic and political power to demand them, resulting in what some have called ecological gentrification. Policymakers and planners must engage diverse communities and ensure that infrastructure services are designed for everyone – and communities need to demand it.
What you have to look forward to in Sunday Kos:
• Obama humanizes undocumented immigrants and calls them Americans. Trump calls them vomit, by Ian Reifowitz
• International Elections Digest: New Zealand's Labour Party surges back to life with 'Jacindamania,' by Daily Kos Elections International
• To dismantle systemic racism and create a more just society, by Susan Grigsby
• Political malpractice kills, and the perpetrators should be dealt with accordingly, by Egberto Willies
• The heat is on: How climate change is making Western wildfires worse, by Sher Watts Spooner
• Let's talk about Black Evangelicals and social justice ministries, by Denise Oliver Velez
• So, you hate unions because … by Mark E Andersen
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Gen. Petraeus’s “Powell” Moment:
In its must-read editorial today, "Hiding Behind the General," the New York Times lays out the case for caution on the eve of General Petraeus's testimony on Iraq. It notes, as many have mentioned, that six weeks before the 2004 election, General Petraeus penned an op-ed in which he "rhapsodized about 'tangible progress' and how the Iraqi forces were 'developing steadily,' an assessment that may have swayed some voters but has long since proved to be untrue." It also emphasizes that tomorrow's testimony should be viewed in light of the many reports from independent agencies and organizations which paint an accurate and dire picture for the future of American involvement in Iraq.
The editorial also brings up a chilling comparison:Mr. Bush, deeply unpopular with the American people, is counting on the general to restore credibility to his discredited Iraq policy. He frequently refers to the escalation of American forces last January as General Petraeus’s strategy — as if it were not his own creation. The situation echoes the way Mr. Bush made Colin Powell — another military man with an overly honed sense of a soldier’s duty — play frontman at the United Nations in 2003 to make the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Bush cannot once again subcontract his responsibility. This is his war.
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