RAPID CITY, SD (April 10, 2017) – South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is host to a seminar titled “Sustainable Tools for Reducing Weather and Climate Impacts.” The presentation begins at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 10 in the Classroom Building 204-West at SD Mines. The featured speaker is Cindy Bruyère, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.
Bruyère and others in her field point out that the economic impacts of weather and climate extremes are rising, as global population grows and moves into urban and more hazard-prone areas. In response to the growing need for information on the impacts of climate change, researchers within NCAR’s Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes are partnering with a wide range of organizations to develop GRRIT – the Global Risk Resilience and Impacts Toolbox.
GRRIT places the tools and information to advance understanding of extreme events and their effects within reach of decision-makers and planners making society’s tough choices. GRRIT uses a sophisticated framework that provides users with access to hazard, vulnerability and exposure information and data from a broad variety of public and private sources via tools available within a web interface.
Government agencies, industry, universities and others have already started to develop information and tools that can be used by decisions-makers to chart the best path for reducing the impact of extreme events. However, these data and tools may not be readily available, exist in formats accessible to the average user or be adaptable to related regions and requirements. GRRIT’s sustainable, fully supported toolbox is designed to provide a common foundation for these and future developments, ones that aid society in reducing weather and climate impacts, building economic resilience and improving disaster recovery. In keeping with NCAR practice for community facilities, GRRIT will be freely available and will be maintained and supported by NCAR.
Featured speaker Cindy Bruyère is also a visiting research fellow at the North-West University of South Africa. She holds an M.Sc. in Dynamical Modeling and a Ph.D. in Environmental Management. She started her career at the South African Weather Service, where she rose to Assistant Director of research programs and Project Manager for operational systems.
The seminar is jointly hosted by Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Mines. The event is free and open to the public.