Dr Lee Chapman of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences describes, in 60 seconds, his research in the impact of weather and climate on the built environment.
I'm Dr Lee Chapman, a reader in climate resilience at the University of Birmingham and I am interested in the impact of weather and climate on the built environment. Cities are remarkable concentrations of both people and critical infrastructure which has evolved to serve the growing population. I specialise in improving the resilience of that infrastructure to extreme weather events such as heatwaves and flooding, so that society can continue to function effectively - whatever the weather.
My research team works with industry to monitor and adapt our energy, transport and ICT networks to cope with the demands of a changing climate. The future may be one of electricity brown-outs due to increased demand fueled by a growing need to cool our cities. Or indeed, increased transport disruption due to more frequent flood events - but it doesn't need to be that way. It is all about building cities with the adaptive capacity to cope with the demands of both today's weather, and the extreme events of tomorrow.
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Dr Lee Chapman's profile