LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — On July 1, researchers from eight different Kentucky universities will team up on a five-year project to build climate resilience in our state.
It’s called Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction & Building Response Systems, or CLIMBS.
CLIMBS is a $20 million research project funded by the National Science Foundation.
Kentucky has seen tornadoes, flooding, extreme cold, and much more in just the last few years.
One of the many reasons why CLIMBS will look at the impact climate variability has on the state.
The goal is to learn more about what drives climate change and use past weather events to predict future ones.
It’ll also look at climate-related issues facing different communities across the state and investigate emergency response plans and how we can make our communities better protected.
Read more of the latest Kentucky news Other research areas will go beyond the damage we see across the state when these weather events happen.
“How is a community developed? What are all the various different mechanisms that connect the community? As a matter of fact, we use the word ‘interconnectedness’,” explained Department Chair for the University of Kentucky Dept. of Civil Engineering Sebastian Bryson. “How the water system is connected to the power system is connected to the transportation systems. All of those has this human vulnerability component that’s sitting on top of it. Meaning that people use these systems.”
With the size of this project, it is going to take a village to allow everything to go smoothly.
The good news is a project this big, brings plenty of opportunities for students from each of the eight participating schools to get involved.
During the course of this project, researchers will partake in a number of community outreach and educational opportunities designed to allow people to try their own climate resiliency research.
The $20 million investment will also help support workforce development at Kentucky colleges and increase the number of students from under-represented backgrounds able to pursue careers in STEM.
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Researchers said this is a once-in-a-career project and being a part of it is truly special.
“It’s always amazing to watch how much talent we have in the in the state of Kentucky working at our research institutions in terms of the amazing things that they are currently doing. When you’re a faculty member, you kind of think about your university,” explained UK Biosystems Engineering Professor Czarena Crofcheck. “Working with these people who open up and really embrace the idea that we’re trying to help the entire Commonwealth is really, really mean something.”
With this being a project that will be worked on over the next five years, results will come gradually.
With that, Bryson and Crofcheck alike want people to know why this research matters to them.
“It matters because for them, regardless of whether they’re in western Kentucky and dealing with the high winds and the occasional droughts and they get flooding to or to eastern Kentucky, where they get a lot of flooding and ice storms,” Bryson explained. “All of these other climate driven hazards that this project is doing is helping you. That’s the reason why you want to be concerned or that’s why you have this project mean something is that we are dealing with the problems that have been plaguing our communities since day one and we’re trying to deal with them right up front right now.”
Work to get the project off the ground has been going on for roughly 18 months.
To learn more about CLIMBS you can do so here .
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