Description
Catastrophes have a revelatory function. The recent Los Angeles wildfires have revealed a disconnect between ecological risk and regulatory structures. “Price signals” such as rising insurance rates are assumed to catalyze change in behavior in a market economy, but the built environment remains unresponsive to landscapes of risk, anesthetized by a host of legacy price controls, unresponsive public policies, and outmoded corporate business models. Honest collaboration between regulatory agencies, private insurers, and communities is the only way forward. We must be reminded that losses from climate events such as the recent fires are ultimately absorbed by the entire city, albeit unevenly, on the order of tens of billions of dollars. The need for new models couldn’t be clearer.
The seminar is designed to investigate the often inscrutable link between ecological risk models and the industries comprising the built environment. The course combines research methods, geospatial mapping, a