Hot, Dry, Burnt: Adapting to Climate Change in the American West - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/06/2024

In regions where cities are becoming hotter, dryer, and more exposed to wildfire, landscape architects are poised to play an outsized role in helping communities adapt. Hear from experts about new resources, ongoing research, and proven design strategies for responding to climate change in the American West and beyond.

Learning objectives:

Understand key impacts of climate change in the American West and other water-scarce regions.
Identify design strategies for addressing challenges and risks associated with urban heat, drought, and wildfire.
Identify opportunities for interdisciplinary partnerships with local agencies to advance climate adaptation.
Advocate for nature-based solutions to mitigate environmental risks at the community scale.

Jonah Susskind, ASLA

Senior Research Associate

SWA Group

Jonah Susskind is a senior research associate at SWA’s design research and innovation platform – XL Lab, where his work focuses on climate change and accelerated urbanization in the built environment with a special focus on wildfire risk and resilience. Susskind has held teaching appointments at MIT and Harvard, where he earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture. He has taught studio and seminar courses in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning focused on environmental risk, urban adaptation, and community resilience. He is the author of “Playbook for the Pyrocene: Design Strategies for Fire-Prone Communities” (2023).

Christine E. Ten Eyck, FASLA

President, Landscape Architect

TEN EYCK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS INC.

Christine Ten Eyck, FASLA, is the founder of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects in Austin, Texas. Since the inception of her company 28 years ago, Christine and her thirteen-person firm have drawn upon intuition, experience, and knowledge to build a body of work which celebrates the inherent beauty and culture of Texas and the southwest, pioneering contemporary regionalism in the southwest. Her projects range from urban design, parks, botanical gardens, university campuses to private residential gardens and ranches. She received her BLA from Texas Tech University and was made a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2003.

Dalia Munenzon

Assistant Professor of Urban Design in Sustainable Communities and Infrastructure

Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston

Dalia Munenzon is an assistant professor of urban design at the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, where she focuses on researching and teaching adaptive strategies and resiliency methods for sustainable communities and infrastructure. Dalia was awarded the 2022 SOM Foundation Research award and the AIA Upjohn research award for the Collective Comfort project to develop a public program that re-thinks the cooling center as an educational resilience hub and provides alternative visions that foreground collectivity and community resilience to extreme heat.