In the last year, the U.S. has experienced extreme weather events, including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as wildfires in California, and flooding in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas, that have devastated homes and communities. Some places had never experienced such high levels of flooding, wind, and destruction. Others have experienced these repeat events due to the combined effects of extreme weather and the lack of resilient design. Our patterns of growth and development in the U.S. have placed homes and communities in the floodplain, along sensitive shorelines, and in other vulnerable and precarious places. The escalating costs of damage from disasters and the increasing intensity and frequency of weather-related events forces us to think about how we educate and train future design scholars and practitioners. The organizational and incentive structures in U.S. colleges and universities pose many barriers to delivering a high-quality resilient design education. This report identifies ways to eliminate these barriers and facilitate the delivery of an interdisciplinary, systems-based, multi-scalar education in resilient design.
Resilient Design Education in the United States

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