Survey: Who’s Thinking about Climate Change?

By Maria Viteri Hart | August 20, 2020

Who is doing climate change in our space?

That is one question that came to mind to the organizers launching the Infrastructure Working Group (IWG), as part of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI).

What we mean is what municipalities are considering climate change impacts in the planning, design, and management of their infrastructure? Are communities having this conversation?

According to Daniel Wright, one of the group’s co-chairs, extreme rainfall is one of the impacts we’re seeing in Wisconsin and will continue to stress stormwater and transportation infrastructure. Having updated rainfall statistics in design specifications is one critical element of planning for climate change.

It was evident that we needed to survey those responsible for infrastructure investment decisions in Wisconsin to get a clear picture of where people (communities) are at. This means infrastructure planners, engineers, scientists, managers, and elected officials.

“One thing we know is that many communities and organizations are already working on climate change. They may just not call it that. They may be working on sustainability plans or goals to make infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather impacts. We get that. Perhaps an organization/municipality has not yet begun thinking about climate change. We want to learn about where you are, so we can, collectively, move forward in Wisconsin,” says Rob Montgomery, chair of the Infrastructure Working Group.

The Wisconsin Infrastructure and Climate Change Survey will be emailed directly to Wisconsin highway commissioners, ports directors, airport managers, dams managers, city public works directors, and utility managers. We are also asking clerks to distribute a shareable survey link to elected officials and county, village, and town infrastructure managers. We’ve partnered with APA-WI and ASCE-WI to reach planners, engineers, and with Wisconsin DOT to work with tribal managers.

Look for an email beginning September 1, 2020.

The survey results will be made available to the public so that municipalities can use the data to pursue climate change grants. We are also asking people to weigh in on some ideas that we have for IWG activities.

To close, Montgomery reflects on IWG’s mission of generating and sharing information that can limit vulnerability to climate change in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. “Climate change brings new considerations on how we think about our infrastructure and the tools and data we will need to design new types of infrastructure and to ensure that we are not contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Add climate change to COVID-19 and the racial justice movement. Solutions must be people-centric, and we are proactively working to avoid flooding and provide service to citizens and businesses in Wisconsin.”