Toward Resilient Cities and Landscapes
(VIRTUAL) Spring 2021
Instructors: Thaddeus Pawlowski, Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes
Johanna Lovecchio, Columbia Climate School
Description:
What makes people and places resilient? In 2021 cities across the world are facing a global pandemic,
economic stagnation, racial and sectarian divisiveness and violence, and extreme weather events driven by climate change. How can we learn from these crises to rebuild better together?
This course will explore lessons from the last two decades of the global urban resilience movement and
apply those lessons to the challenges that cities face today. We will learn from local leaders who solve
specific problems in their communities and in doing so challenge the status quo by which cities develop
and landscapes are transformed. Case studies come from the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes work spanning six continents and cover a range of topics including urban design and development, transportation and land use planning, watershed management, natural capital, climate change adaptation, and the Green New Deal.
This workshop is open to all and welcomes diverse and multi-disciplinary perspectives. It will be most
useful to those seeking to make change in their own communities, and those who seek to learn from
changemakers and help them scale up their strategies to make the global impact needed to meet the
challenges of our planetary crisis.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn to use the tools of planning and design to help communities and ecosystems adapt to the pressures of urbanization, inequality, and climate change.
- Better understand how to integrate resilience thinking into different fields and organizations.
- Learn from experts at the forefront of urban resilience and work with them to develop concrete strategies and best practices around complex issues.
Schedule:
Session 1: Deconstructing Vulnerability - April 28 - 5:00 PM-8:00 PM EST
Session 2: Understanding Petrochemical Urbanization - May 5 - 5:00 PM-8:00 PM EST
Session 3: Redefining Resilience - May 12 - 5:00 PM-8:00 PM EST
Session 4: Resilience in Practice - May 19 - 5:00 PM-8:00 PM EST
Session 5: Climate Justice in our own backyard - May 26 - 5:00 PM-8:00 PM EST
Instructor bios:
Thaddeus Pawlowski is the Managing Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes and also a Research Scholar and Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Design and Urban Planning. He has sought to integrate resilience and climate change adaptation into the long-term development patterns of cities through the design of projects, policies, and programs. Thaddeus planned for disasters at the New York City Office of Emergency Management, worked to reduce the likelihood and impact of disasters at the New York City Department of City Planning, and then helped New York City recover from Hurricane Sandy at the Office of the Mayor. He has a Masters in Architecture from University of Pennsylvania and was a 2015 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University.
Johanna Lovecchio is the Director of Impat Programs at the Climate School, where she is leading efforts to deliver impact and interdisciplinary action. She is co-director of the Coastal Resilience and Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Cities Earth Networks as well as Adjunct Faculty of Climate, leading the Climate School’s Earth Studio: Imagining Climate Justice and Resilience collaboration with the Urban Design Program at GSAPP.
She brings the role a specialization in climate adaptation planning, policy, and project design at the intersection of socio-ecological systems, justice, climate, and the built environment. Prior to joining Columbia Climate School, Johanna worked as the Associate Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, where she ran the Resilience Accelerator program with partners such as the Resilient Reefs Initiative and the 100 Resilient Cities Program, delivering strategic support, technical design and climate systems research, and intensive local workshops to prepare resilience projects and policies for implementation.
Prior to joining Columbia, she led efforts at HR&A Advisors and the NYC Dept. of City Planning to scale resilience and disaster recovery capacity-building, develop city- and district-wide climate adaptation plans, explore planning opportunities in waterfront communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and design transformative urban resilience infrastructure investments. This portfolio included the delivery of the National Disaster Resilience Competition and Global Resilience Academy programs as well as the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience Study. Johanna is also on the Leadership Council of the Climigration Network and Co-Chair of the Funding and Resources Working Group.
Johanna holds a Masters of Urban Planning from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Environmental Studies and Metropolitan Studies from the New York University College of Arts and Sciences.