Will climate change influence Duluth's rebuilding plans?

Cody Inn collapse
Part of the Cody Inn sits in a ravine Friday, June 22, 2012, after it collapsed into a ravine on Wednesday, in Duluth, Minn. Residents of Duluth are assessing the damage from flooding caused by historic rainfall, even as areas farther south continue to fight rising waters.
AP Photo/Bob King

As Duluth continues its cleanup efforts following the June 20 flood, plans to rebuild could be influenced by climate change. The flood caused major damage to the city's infrastructure, public works and private property.

What role should climate change - specifically the prediction of more frequent and more severe storms - play in those plans? We wanted to talk about this after a recent Star Tribune article on the topic.

How have other cities, both in the United States and around the globe, planned for a future with an uncertain climate?

Brian Stone, Jr., associate professor of city and regional planning and director of the Urban Climate Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will join The Daily Circuit Monday to talk about rebuilding Duluth.

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"For most cities, a re-vegetation of the built environment is the single most effective strategy to slow climate change in the near term," Stone wrote on his blog. "Climate modeling studies find that efforts to plant up to a million new trees in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Denver will not only render these urban environments more beautiful, such campaigns are greatly enhancing the resilience of these cities to climate change."

Diane Desotelle, climate change extension educator for Minnesota Sea Grant, will also join the discussion.

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