By Guillermo Accame, Industry Advisor to NCAR

Why do I think the creation of C3WE was genius?  To answer that, let’s consider how good ideas cross the line and become genius.  We can all agree that high intelligence, like an IQ over 140, is the price of admission, but what is intelligence without an education?  So add lots of highly intelligent scientists with advanced degrees, like you find at NCAR, and now you have the basic building blocks to produce a genius idea.

By Rhiannan Price, Digital Globe

By Emily Jack-Scott, Aspen Global Change Institute, and Susan Moser Research Consultancy

The term ‘resilience’ has been adopted by many different disciplines in recent years to embody many different meanings and objectives. The use of the term ‘resilience’ in published literature has increased tenfold in the last decade alone, begging the question:

What is resilience?

By Rob Pressly, Colorado Resiliency and Recovery Office

The Colorado Resiliency and Recovery Office, and C3WE partner, is pleased to announce the release of three new recovery and resiliency resources.

by Jennifer Jacobs and Jo Daniels, University of New Hampshire

The Infrastructure and Climate Network (ICNet) is a network of transportation infrastructure researchers, practitioners, and climate scientists based in the U.S. Northeast. Its mission is to provide actionable climate change data needed to advance infrastructure research and adaptation.

By Geoffrey Saville, Willis Group

Extreme weather events are opportunists. They strike indiscriminately, and selectively expose the parts of society that are underprepared and most vulnerable. We see the lack of resilience to extreme events in the most susceptible regions time and time again in the loss of life and livelihoods and the destruction of properties and businesses.

By Marc Lehmann and Geoffrey Saville, Willis Towers Watson

Hurricane Katrina caused the deaths of an estimated 1833 people, wreaked havoc to an entire region and left a scar on the American psyche. Catastrophes of a similar scale could happen at any time, so what can policy-makers, local communities, private sector organisations and the insurance industry do about it?

By Lori Peek and Alice Fothergill

The following guest blog by Lori Peek and Alice Fothergill reflects the importance of people when considering the impacts of extreme weather and climate. ECEP's goal is to improve understanding and communication of the impacts of, and response to, weather and climate extremes. Understanding the long term consequences from social vulnerability and exposure to the hazards is as important in resilient design as knowledge of the risks posed by the hazards.

By Chris Davis, NCAR

By Greg Holland, C3WE Director NCAR

A decade after Katrina, New Orleans has regrouped and more than recovered. The levee protections are back stronger and reinforced, and pumps have been refurbished and made safe from flooding. Reports from the area indicate a new thriving culture that has built on their colorful history and are adding a new age of entrepreneurial activity. The city is buzzing and life is good.

But how safe is the city? And what of the surrounding communities?