Speakers

ABSTRACT:

The Venice Safeguard Project is a combination of mobile flood barriers and environmental restoration activities, developed by Magistrato alle Acque, the Venetian Water Authority, and Consorzio Venezia Nuova, a private consortium over the last 30 years. An increasing number of coastal cities in the world are threatened by relative sea level rise, and possible lines of action are: prevention, adaptation, mitigation, or a flexible combination of them to reduce erosion by integrating protective infrastructures with bio-structuring habitats. There are different alternatives for resilient solutions to sea level rise and flooding: realignment of the areas at risk, whenever economically viable and politically accepted; super-levee, such as the one in Edogawa-Tokyo and suggested for the city of Boston; and storm surge mobile barriers, such as the one adopted in Venice, www.mosevenezia.eu, Nederland, Russia, U.K., and New Orleans. I will present the Venice “building with nature” bio-stabilizing structures and the storm surge barriers, integrated tools for adaptation to sea level rise. The barriers can also be operated for improving tidal flushing and limit erosion of salt marshes and tidal flats.

BIOGRAPHY:

Giovanni Cecconi is the founder of the Venice Resilience Lab, a co- exploration platform for glo-cal science, resilience and social literacy for better living. Benefiting from 30 years experience at Consorzio Venezia Nuova as the director of the study, design and operation of the Venice stormsurge barriers, he is now promoting sustainable solutions for coastal cities in times of climate change, aiming at the conservation and cultivation of socio-ecological resources. He is interested in the study of complex systems, to be explored as COOS: Confined Ontic Open Systems www.linkedin.com/pulse/wonder-nature-coos-freshwater-delta-from-discovery-island-cecconi/ . He is also an experienced hydro-morphologist, with skills on sediment management for improving soil/water-quantity/quality by learning and building with nature integrated solutions for: navigation, fishing, aquaculture, ecotourism, conservation of local cultural identities from the impacts of migrations and climate change.

ABSTRACT:

This presentation will discuss the common current scientific understanding of human induced global warming and its direct effect on climate change. A review will be given on the contemporary world affected by global climate change, such as extreme weather, food supplies disruption, water scarcity, health impact, ocean acidification, bio-diversity impact, sea level rise on highly densely populated areas. The talk will also introduce the solutions at hand, their trends and the urgency to implement them. A brief description of the Climate Realty Project, founded and chaired by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore, will introduce this presentation.

BIOGRAPHY:

Ezio Mattiace is a Senior VP and founding partner of Tiber International, with 25 years of experience in strategic management, construction management and advanced energy development. He holds a MSCE PE in Civil Engineering, Summa Cum Laude with a major in Construction Management from the Polytechnic of Bari, Italy and an MBA with a major in International Business from Johns Hopkins University. His is a Green Associate with the US Green Building Council and an ASCE associate.

ABSTRACT:

If the reduction of GHG emissions agreed upon with the Paris Agreement starts to be operative, there is the risk that the impact of HydroFluoroCarbons (HFCs) on Climate Change, now negligible, becomes relevant, because most of them have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP). HFCs are mostly used as working fluid in Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps (RACHP) equipment and were introduced as replacement of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) which had been phased out under Montreal Protocol. To avoid that risk, the Montreal Protocol parties decided in Kigali, Rwanda, October 2016 to phase down and eventually phase ut HFCs, by signing the so called “Kigali Amendment”. Baselines, freeze dates, schedules for the reductions of HFC consumption for both developing and developed country groups, as well as the 17 HFCs that are now included in the Montreal Protocol are described in the presentation. The list of alternatives for HCFC-22 including high-GWP HFC replacements is given, and considerations regarding the choice of refrigerant, both low-GWP synthetic and “natural” refrigerant alternatives are presented. The low-GWP refrigerant flammability issue and the performance of equipment at high ambient regions are described. It is discussed whether the potential impacts of the Kigali Amendment will be reinforcing the momentum of applications using low-GWP refrigerants and the innovation for sustainable RACHP technologies.

BIOGRAPHY:

Fabio Polonara is currently Professor of Thermal Sciences at Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM) in Ancona, Italy. Since 2012 he also is the Director of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e Scienze Matematiche of UNIVPM. His research activity focuses on topics relating to refrigeration technology, the thermophysical properties of refrigerants and biofuels, renewable energies (with emphasis on biofuels) and energy planning. Along these lines of research, he has been scientific project manager for researches funded by Italian and European Union bodies. He has coordinated the group that prepared the Energetic and Environmental Plan for the Marche Regional Government (PEAR), which was approved in 2005, and subsequently updated in 2016. Since 2013 he has been appointed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as national Delegate for Italy at the International Institute of Refrigeration (I.I.R.), a scientific and technical intergovernmental organization based in Paris, France.Since 2015 he is member of TEAP (Technical and Economic Assessment Panel) and co-chair of RTOC (Refrigeration Technical Options Committee) which helps UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) to implement the Montreal Protocol. His research activities are documented in more than 200 papers.

ABSTRACT:

Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. This talk discusses the development of technical and economic plans to convert the energy infrastructure of each of the 50 United States and 139 countries of the world to those powered by 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes, namely electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, after energy efficiency measures have been accounted for. Results showing the ability of the grid to remain stable at low cost under 100% WWS conditions are also provided. For more information, please see: http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/WWS-50-USState-plans.html.

BIOGRAPHY:

Mark Z. Jacobson is the Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program, and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an A.B. in Economics, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford in 1988. He received an M.S. and PhD in Atmospheric Sciences in 1991 and 1994, respectively, from UCLA, and joined the faculty at Stanford in 1994. He has published two textbooks of two editions each and over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles. He received the 2005 AMS Henry G. Houghton Award and the 2013 AGU Ascent Award for his work on black carbon climate impacts, and the 2013 Global Green Policy Design Award for developing state and country energy plans. In 2015, he received a Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for his work on the grid integration of 100% wind, water and solar energy systems. He has served on an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, appeared in a TED talk, appeared on the David Letterman Show to discuss converting the world to clean energy, and co-founded The Solutions Project (www.thesolutionsproject.org).

ABSTRACT:

In the last nine years ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Agency) have launched L band microwave remote sensing satellites to detect soil moisture and ocean salinity on a global scale. The SMOS satellite launched 2009 by ESA employed a sensitive synthetic aperture radiometer which is used to detect both soil moisture and ocean surface salinity. NASA put in orbit the Aquarius satellite in 2011 having a very sensitive radiometer and radar to detect sea surface salinity. In 2011 NASA launched the SMAP satellite to detect soil moisture. These satellites detect radiation emitted from the ground or ocean surface. Since the emissions are very small, the satellites operate in a protected frequency band where radar and communication’s traffic are not allowed. This talk will discuss these satellite instruments, how they detect soil moisture and ocean salinity, and the relevance of these variables to the detection of climate change. The satellite measurements can detect regions affected by drought and flooding, as well as, regions where salinity has decreased because of the melting ice caps. The records of these changes over many years shows the effects of climate change.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Lang is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. Professor Lang’s research interests are in microwave remote sensing. In conjunction with NASA Goddard, he has developed an active/passive land based system called ComRad for the detection of soil moisture under vegetation. He has also been active in determining sea surface salinity as a member of the NASA Aquarius Science Team. Dr. Lang is an active participant in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society. He has been an Associate Editor for Microwave Scattering and Propagation, and Co-Chairman of the Technical Program Committee for the IGARSS’90 meeting held at College Park, MD. Dr. Lang is a Fellow of the IEEE and has been awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society.

ABSTRACT:

Solar energy is a renewable energy source as opposed to non-renewable energy sources (e.g. fossil fuels, coal and nuclear). Solar energy is abundant; we will not run out of it is long we have a sun. The surface of the earth receives 120,000 terawatts of solar radiation (sunlight) – 20,000 times more power than what is needed to supply the entire world. Its potential use is beyond imagination and it is sustainable. Above all, it is environmentally friendly, as harnessing solar energy does generally not cause pollution-nothing compared to most conventional energy sources. Its utilization is rapidly increasing and prices are drastically going down. Besides its many other application like distilling water in Africa, powering satellites, providing electricity to customers not connected to a power grid, in short makes electricity available with potentially much reduced cost. This is an important step in fighting the climate crisis.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Fathy, is James W. McConnell Professor at the University of Tennessee, director of the Microwave Laboratory, and an IEEE fellow. He is very active in a broad set of disciplines for research, and has been involved in developing highly efficient solar cells using nanotechnology, UWB radars for SAR and MIMO applications since. In particular, his research is recognized worldwide in the area of electromagnetic fields modeling, mm-waves, reconfigurable RF frontends, power combiners and UWB radars. Additionally he pioneered reconfigurable antennas (sponsored by Intel and DARPA). Moreover, he has developed many microwave applications technologies (sponsored by ONR, DARPA, NASA, and NRL). Professor Fathy’s research background in solar cells, SAR radars, 3D imaging, multi-band, reconfigurable, UWB, and reconfigurable multi-band antenna structures has been internationally recognized, and has been awarded many awards, has 12 patents and over 250 publications.

ABSTRACT:

The Paris Climate Agreement strives to limit the rise in global mean surface temperature (GMST) to 1.5°C above pre-industrial, with an upper limit of 2.0°C warming, based on a set of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to limit future emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In this presentation, I will quantify the likelihood that the rise in GMST can truly be limited to either 1.5 or 2.0°C, using an empirical model of global climate developed by our research group, coupled to our analysis of future GHGs emissions implied by the NDCs. The magnitude of the transition to renewable sources of energy needed to achieve the GHG reductions of the NDCs will be described. Finally, I will touch upon the implications for emissions of GHGs due to the intransigence of the Trump administration to participate in the Paris Climate Agreement.

BIOGRAPHY:

Ross J. Salawitch is a Professor in the Departments of Atmospheric & Oceanic Science, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. He completed his PhD in 1988 at Harvard University. Following a postdoc at Harvard, he spent 13 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He joined the faculty at UMD in 2007. He has authored numerous papers in the peer-reviewed literature on topics such as stratospheric ozone, air quality, the global carbon cycle, and climate. Recently, he and his research group published a book entitled Paris Climate Agreement: Beacon of Hope. The content of the book is available for free, electronically, via open access at http://www.parisbeaconofhope.org.

ABSTRACT:

Our understanding of the coupled land-ocean-atmosphere system is only possible through the use of satellite data. Since the 1990s, the assimilation of satellite data have dramatically improved numerical weather prediction and climate models. I will review many of the key geophysical measurements currently being measured by satellites and show these data are fundamental to our understanding of weather and climate.

BIOGRAPHY:

Compton Tucker came NASA/Goddard in 1977 after receiving his PhD degrees from Colorado State University. He has used satellite data for famine early warning, primary production, deforestation, land cover mapping, predicting ecologically-coupled disease outbreaks, glacier extent, and climatic effects on global vegetation. He has authored or coauthored more than 190 journal articles that have been cited 54,000 times according to Google Scholar. Dr. Tucker is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been awarded several medals and honors, including NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the National Air and Space Museum Trophy, the Henry Shaw Medal from the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Galathea Medal from the Royal Danish Geographical Society, and the Vega Medal from the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography.

ABSTRACT:

The increase of frequency, intensity, range of impacts, and casualty losses of extreme climates/natural disasters in recent decades are devastating and in most cases can’t be predicted and prepared for. There are about 400 major natural disasters on earth per year, that caused a total economic damage of $350 billions, many deaths of innocent people, and more than 30 millions climate change refugees per years. Are these caused by global warming of 1°C and sea level rise of 7 inches, that are from excessive production and usage in energy systems in the past century, such as coal power plants and cars? This presentation briefly reviews carbon emissions of fossil fuel-fired energy systems, greenhouse gases and global warming, and global climate changes. Observations and reasoning of whether energy systems/usage cause extreme climate changes will be discussed. Although, energy and climate-related disasters, such as floods, storms, heat/cold waves, drought, wildfires, can be generally explained, correlation of energy and geological disasters, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and landslides, is found low, if not none. Dr. Nieh will also briefly discuss his related research on high efficiency quadruple power generation cycle that can substantially reduce the use of fuels and thus carbon emission.

BIOGRAPHY:

Prof. Nieh joined Catholic in 1983 with a Ph.D. from U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a professor, he taught 34 different courses at Catholic, including 15 new graduate courses in energy and environment, and particularly, ENGR 535 (Climate Chang & Energy), and ENGR 536 (Environmental Impacts & Energy). He was the recipient of Lectureship Award of United Nations and Kaman Teaching Excellence Award of Catholic. As a scholar, he has completed 21 externally funded research projects, published 100+ scientific papers, 1 college textbook, 1 computer code, and 8 US/foreign patents. His research areas include: Combustion and Fuels, Clean Coal Technology, Fuel Cells, Pollution Control, and Multiphase Flows. He developed clean, multifueled Vortex Combustor for US DOE, Vortexing FBC technology for Navy, and Autothermal Fuel Reformer and Enriched Combustion for Army.

ABSTRACT:

Davin Hutchins will share the latest impacts of climate disruption using newly updated data from Al Gore's Climate Reality presentation, which he gives along with 20,000 trained Climate Leaders worldwide. The presentation will review anecdotal evidence of climate disruption from the most recent extreme weather events in 2017 and developments in the renewable energy revolution and international climate policy that provides hope for our challenges in an era that demands global action. The presentation is designed to motivate the general public and climate professionals to action.

BIOGRAPHY:

Mr. Hutchins, is a Senior Global Campaign Strategist, and a Climate Reality Leader trained by former Vice President Al Gore on how to mobilize communities for climate action. He is an environmentalist, campaigner and digital strategist with specialties in nonprofit communications, international social issues, social media engagement, visual media, digital products and agile project management. He works with multiple international offices on confronting climate change and promoting sustainability. He has worked as a journalist for and with numerous news agencies such as CNN, CNN International, PBS, ITVS, Headline News, TechTV, Voice of America, MBN, Internews and Huffington Post. He has directed “The Art Of Flight,” a feature documentary which debuted at AFI Fest, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and Bangkok International Film Festival.

ABSTRACT:

Wastewater by olive oil mills and dairy industries is offering GreenTech several opportunities to boost its competitiveness and growth across the Europe, thanks to the scale up and further commercialization of a new eco-innovative process and its green products; namely ReSpirA. ReSpirA business is based on the conversion of agro-food industrial wastewater (WW) into green marketable products derived from Spirulina algae. Basically it will address two business areas: (1) WW treatment (service) and (2) Spirulina and purified elements (as Omega 3, Omega 6 and Phycocyanin) production and commercialization (products). It’s important to notice that currently olive mills and dairy industries generate large quantities of WW and pay high costs to dispose of it (mainly landfills). ReSpirA will let them cut the cost of disposal by at least 50% while producing feedstock for Spirulina cultivation, fertilizer (as organic stream) and pure water that may be used by the same companies generating WW. With its environmental benefits, ReSpirA is supporting the well-known European environmental challenges, promoted by the EU Sustainable Development Strategy through the “Water Framework Directive and the “Nitrates Directive”. Moreover the production of microalga Spirulina, a well-known human and animal food or nutritional supplement, is in line with the EU strategy for developing the Bioeconomy throughout Europe.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Moglie is an Associate Professor of Applied Physic at Università eCampus, Novedrate, Italy. His scientific activities are focused on: biodiesel from vegetables oil and microalgae; modeling and optimization of real biodiesel production processes using statistical methods; development of analytical (HPLC and GC techniques) methods for the identification of the compounds involved during the vegetable oil conversion; and research and development on the culture and downstream processes of microalgae lipids for biodiesel production. He is the Founder and Chairman of Academic Spin Off GreenTech, which is a research company operating in the sustainable energy sector. It develops, produces and sells sustainable conversion systems, and systems for the management and accumulation of electricity, thermic and refrigerating energy. Currently, the company is developing photobioreactor plants on an industrial scale, with the double objective of producing high-value solutions for biogas cogeneration plants, and of realizing and selling one or more sub-products resulting from the obtained biomass (microalgae).

ABSTRACT

The built environment – buildings, infrastructure, cities, transportation networks, etc. – is recognized as a key contributor to CO₂ emissions. Challenging and re-thinking how we design and build will have a significant impact on reducing our global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Various standards and rating systems have been created to drive the industry toward less damaging and more efficient buildings, but are often siloed to address one specific aspect of climate and/or the environment. While these measures in sustainability, resilience, and greening of our structures are necessary in today’s construction protocol, they are simply not effective enough to create a sustainable future for 20, 40, 100 years from now. To meet the necessary GHG reductions and stem the tides of catastrophic climate change, we must push the boundaries of traditional construction methods. This presentation will highlight three possible design solutions that work toward achieving these goals while creating and continuing thriving buildings, communities, and regions in our built environment. After all, buildings are the spaces in which we interact daily, and are the foundation for our cities.

BIOGRAPHY

Geoffrey Eddy is a Senior Engineer with Arup’s DC office, focusing on building mechanical, energy and sustainable related systems. He has served on the Board for the USGBC Capital Region and advocated for additional improved building efficiency. He designs and leads several commercial, institutional, and government projects ranging from adaptive re-use to new large campus projects pushing the boundaries of best practice to maximize efficiency and environmental quality. His expertise allows him to reach beyond mechanical systems to improve energy efficiency that can bring value to the stakeholders, allow for resilient designs, and reduce building carbon emissions.

ABSTRACT:

Water resources are currently at risk from the impacts of climate change. Current climate projections forecast disproportionate increases in precipitation and evapotranspiration rates, thus changing the global water cycle. Due to the expected non-stationarity of climate change, I created a physics based water cycle model that couples HydroGeoSphere (HGS), a 3D variably saturated subsurface/surface flow model, to Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), a 3D mesoscale nonhydrostatic atmospheric model. HGS replaces the land surface processes (e.g. soil moisture, overland flow, evapotranspiration) within WRF. In return, WRF provides the precipitation and potential evapotranspiration fluxes back to HGS. To demonstrate the coupled model, the entire California Basin was simulated, which reproduced similar groundwater drawdown rates as observed from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a 21st century remote sensing satellite. Additionally, the coupled model replicated observed stream flows and meteorological observations.

BIOGRAPHY:

Jason Davison is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at The Catholic University of America. Previously, he was a Post-Doctoral Scientist at Aquanty Inc., where he researched Canada's water resources and the impact of global climate change. Dr. Davison received his PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the University of Waterloo in 2017, and his research focused on integrated atmosphere, surface, and subsurface water flow models. He received his M.S. in Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology from Stanford University, and his B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jason’s research interests include water cycle modeling, environmental policy, continental scale hydrology, and climate change.

BIOGRAPHY:

Mr. Ciarla is a professional engineer and founding partner of Tiber International, with more than thirty years of experience in executive board and managerial positions. He has held positions as President and Executive Chairman of Maccaferri Inc. the American subsidiary of Maccaferri, a worldwide leader in soil stabilization, soil erosion and sediment control, soil retaining structures, flood control and coastal protection works and mining solutions. He holds a MSCE PE Degree in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering earned from the Department of Engineering – University of Rome (Italy) in 1975. Mr. Ciarla is a member of the Italian Professional Engineering Association, Rome region, since 1978. He is an ASCE Associate, a member of the International Erosion Control Association, which he served as a President in 1989-1990, and a past Council Member of the Geosynthetic Material Association.