Resilient Communities

Objective: ISEN will discover, test, and scale infrastructure solutions that strengthen community resilience to climate change stressors.

As we enter an era defined by climate and ecosystem disruptions, global communities must adapt to new levels of acute and chronic stressors. More intense and frequent storm and flooding events, longer droughts, and higher global average temperatures, combined with outdated or insufficient water and energy infrastructure, are creating conditions in which communities are challenged to adequately respond to, and recover from, these shocks.

Programs like the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Communities Initiative have made tremendous early progress in bringing attention to the need for robust and flexible urban resilience solutions.

Learning from their example, ISEN can scale existing and emerging technological innovations for energy, water, and ecosystem management to develop region-specific solutions that build community capacity for recovering from or preventing future stressors. Effective solutions will also deliver economic and social value to their host communities – a “resilience dividend” - in the form of economic productivity and improved public health.

ISEN WILL:

DEVELOP new grid control mechanisms that enable greater penetration of distributed and renewable resources, including microgrids.

APPLY our understanding of complex ecosystem dynamics to implement natural, green infrastructure for urban and rural flood management.

PARTNER with public and private stakeholders - both domestic and global - to test scalable resilience solutions while advancing research interests.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Cities currently cover 2% of the world but consume 66% of the world’s energy and contribute to 70% of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the United Nations, nearly all global population growth between 2016 and 2030 will be absorbed by cities, stressing aged energy and water infrastructure.

Cross-Enterprise Partnerships for Community Impact

China Community

Critical environmental issues—clean air and water, cleanup of hazardous waste sites, safe drinking water, energy policy, and climate change—drive the work of the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Environmental Advocacy Center (EAC) at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. By tapping expertise from across the University, EAC can leverage scientific, engineering, and social science assets to extend its reach and efficacy.

ISEN and EAC have a history of partnership around community resilience projects, including work in DePue, Illinois to advocate for the remediation of toxic materials throughout the residential community, and in LaSalle County, Illinois to assess the effect of sand mines on groundwater supplies and quality. ISEN has also strengthened EAC’s partnership with Chicago’s Elevate Energy to implement energy efficiency programs and renewable energy initiatives in low-income communities.

“Our partnerships with outside organizations, as well as our collaboration across academic departments at Northwestern, allows the work we do at the Environmental Advocacy Center to have a real impact on environmental law and policy. By combining academic rigor with experiential learning, we’re helping to build healthier, more resilient communities.”

- Professor Nancy Loeb

Resilient Communities

Institute For Sustainability And Energy At Northwestern

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