Abstracts

“DoD Climate Assessment Tool (DCAT) International Data Assessment” by Dr. Jim Yoon (CR22-7588)

The DoD Climate Assessment Tool (DCAT) is an online tool available to DoD planners and installation managers for assessing the exposure of military sites to climate change. In DCAT, climate exposures are assessed across several hazard categories, including coastal flooding, riverine flooding, extreme temperature, drought, energy demand, wildfire, and land degradation. In an initial version of DCAT, focus was placed on characterizing climate exposures for the contiguous United States and Alaska/Hawaii sites, with overseas locations receiving comparatively limited characterization. For the current effort, climate data sources that can potentially improve the calculation of DCAT indicators for overseas locations are being identified, reviewed, and evaluated. Efficient and customizable workflows for processing large sets of raw climate data into indicator form for input into DCAT are also being introduced. These efforts contribute to a new version of DCAT, denoted as DCAT Overseas, with consistent characterization of climate hazard exposure across the globe. This work showcases the utility of the climate data processing workflow (beyond the specific application of DCAT indicators) for effective handling and processing of large climate model datasets.

“Weather Effects on the Lifecycle of DoD Equipment Replacement (WELDER): A Plug-in for the BUILDER Sustainment Management System” by Dr. Peter Larsen (CR19-5264)

Given increasing threats of extreme weather events, facility planners and policymakers need state-of-the-art information that projects long-term environmental risk and informs how these events may alter the replacement schedules and the performance profiles of individual facilities and their constituent systems and components. The BUILDER Sustainment Management System, the lifecycle management tool used by the DoD to consistently and comprehensively assess and forecast facility conditions, does not currently consider vulnerability to extreme weather events. The Weather Effects on the Lifecycle of DoD Equipment Replacement (WELDER) project involves working closely with partners at DoD organizations and demonstration sites to design, test, and deploy a capability-enhancement module to BUILDER. The module will enable users to, for the first time, produce high-spatial-resolution extreme weather projections, along with metrics communicating the likelihood of impacts. WELDER alters BUILDER component degradation curves by changing component/system/facility condition indices and lifespans according to region-specific extreme weather scenarios, their likelihood, and any potential adaptive responses. WELDER generates alternative Work Action reports with estimated costs that are reprioritized given the likelihood of extreme event threats, possible impacts to facilities (and components within), and plausible facility, system, component, and/or equipment-level adaptation scenarios.
 

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Jim Yoon is a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research focuses on the development and application of advanced modeling and simulation techniques to understand, quantify, and evaluate climate and socioeconomic impacts on coupled human-natural systems, identifying solutions that can enhance system resilience, sustainability, and equity under changing and adverse conditions. Dr. Yoon serves as principal investigator for a set climate analyses and adaptation efforts being funded by DoD. He also leads several agent-based modeling efforts within the DOE Office of Science Multi-Sector Dynamics (MSD) Program. He is a member of the MSD scientific steering group and chair of the MSD Human Systems Modeling Working Group. Dr. Yoon spent several years working as a water resources engineer at MWH Global in Southern California, consulting for municipal clients across the western United States before attending graduate school. He received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University.

Dr. Peter Larsen is staff scientist and leader of the Energy Markets and Policy Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He conducts research and analysis on the economics of electricity reliability and resilience, energy service company industry and project trends, long-term electric utility planning, risk to infrastructure from extreme events, and islanded power systems. Dr. Larsen has published his research in reports, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Environmental Change, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Energy Policy, and Energy Economics. Earlier in his career, Dr. Larsen worked at the Institute of Social and Economic Research in Anchorage, Alaska, the Societal Impacts Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Stratus Consulting (now Abt Associates). Dr. Larsen received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Montana at Missoula, a master’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University, a master’s degree in natural resource economics from Cornell University, and a doctoral degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University.