The volume explains how risk and decision-making analytics can be applied to the wicked problem of protecting infrastructure and society from extreme events. There is increasing research that takes into account the risks associated with the timing and severity of extreme events in engineering to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resiliency of infrastructure. "Engineering for extremes" is defined as measures taken to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resiliency of built infrastructure to climate change, hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes, heat waves, fires, and malevolent and abnormal events that include terrorism, gas explosions, vehicle impact and vehicle overload. The book introduces the key concepts needed to assess the economic and social well-being risks, costs and benefits of infrastructure to extreme events. This includes hazard modelling (likelihood and severity), infrastructure vulnerability, resilience or exposure (likelihood and extent of damage), social and economic loss models, risk reduction from protective measures, and decision theory (cost-benefit and utility analyses). Case studies authored by experts from around the world describe the practical aspects of risk assessment when deciding on the most cost-efficient measures to reduce infrastructure vulnerability to extreme events for housing, buildings, bridges, roads, tunnels, pipelines, and electricity infrastructure in the developed and developing worlds.

This book provides a collection of the state-of-the-art methodologies and approaches suggested for detecting extremes, trend analysis, accounting for nonstationarities, and uncertainties associated with extreme value analysis in a changing climate. This volume is designed so that it can be used as the primary reference on the available methodologies for analysis of climate extremes. Furthermore, the book addresses current hydrometeorologic global data sets and their applications for global scale analysis of extremes. While the main objective is to deliver recent theoretical concepts, several case studies on extreme climate conditions are provided. Audience The book is suitable for teaching in graduate courses in the disciplines of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth System Science, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences.

A leading scientist argues that we must consider deploying climate engineering technology to slow the pace of global warming. Climate engineering—which could slow the pace of global warming by injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere—has emerged in recent years as an extremely controversial technology. And for good reason: it carries unknown risks and it may undermine commitments to conserving energy. Some critics also view it as an immoral human breach of the natural world. The latter objection, David Keith argues in A Scientist's Case for Climate Engineering, is groundless; we have been using technology to alter our environment for years. But he agrees that there are large issues at stake. A leading scientist long concerned about climate change, Keith offers no naïve proposal for an easy fix to what is perhaps the most challenging question of our time; climate engineering is no silver bullet. But he argues that after decades during which very little progress has been made in reducing carbon emissions we must put this technology on the table and consider it responsibly. That doesn't mean we will deploy it, and it doesn't mean that we can abandon efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we must understand fully what research needs to be done and how the technology might be designed and used. This book provides a clear and accessible overview of what the costs and risks might be, and how climate engineering might fit into a larger program for managing climate change.

This report provides prioritization frameworks in accommodating projected future weather and climate extremes for policy makers and engineers involved in infrastructure planning and design.

This book is about the theoretical and practical aspects of the statistics of Extreme Events in Nature. Most importantly, this is the first text in which Copulas are introduced and used in Geophysics. Several topics are fully original, and show how standard models and calculations can be improved by exploiting the opportunities offered by Copulas. In addition, new quantities useful for design and risk assessment are introduced.

Climate extremes often imply significant impacts on human and natural systems, and these extreme events are anticipated to be among the potentially most harmful consequences of a changing climate. However, while extreme event impacts are increasingly recognized, methodologies to address such impacts and the degree of our understanding and prediction capabilities vary widely among different sectors and disciplines. Moreover, traditional climate extreme indices and large-scale multi-model intercomparisons that are used for future projections of extreme events and associated impacts often fall short in capturing the full complexity of impact systems. Climate Extremes and Their Implications for Impact and Risk Assessment describes challenges, opportunities and methodologies for the analysis of the impacts of climate extremes across various sectors to support their impact and risk assessment. It thereby also facilitates cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary discussions and exchange among climate and impact scientists. The sectors covered include agriculture, terrestrial ecosystems, human health, transport, conflict, and more broadly covering the human-environment nexus. The book concludes with an outlook on the need for more transdisciplinary work and international collaboration between scientists and practitioners to address emergent risks and extreme events towards risk reduction and strengthened societal resilience. Provides an overview about past, present and future changes in climate and weather extremes and how to connect that knowledge to impact and risk assessment under global warming Presents different approaches to assess societal-relevant impacts and risk of climate and weather extremes, including compound events, and the complexity of risk cascades and the interconnectedness of societal risk Features applications across a diversity of sectors, including agriculture, health, ecosystem services and urban transport

Written by a team of international experts, Extremes and Recurrence in Dynamical Systems presents a unique point of view on the mathematical theory of extremes and on its applications in the natural and social sciences. Featuring an interdisciplinary approach to new concepts in pure and applied mathematical research, the book skillfully combines the areas of statistical mechanics, probability theory, measure theory, dynamical systems, statistical inference, geophysics, and software application. Emphasizing the statistical mechanical point of view, the book introduces robust theoretical embedding for the application of extreme value theory in dynamical systems. Extremes and Recurrence in Dynamical Systems also features: • A careful examination of how a dynamical system can serve as a generator of stochastic processes • Discussions on the applications of statistical inference in the theoretical and heuristic use of extremes • Several examples of analysis of extremes in a physical and geophysical context • A final summary of the main results presented along with a guide to future research projects • An appendix with software in Matlab® programming language to help readers to develop further understanding of the presented concepts Extremes and Recurrence in Dynamical Systems is ideal for academics and practitioners in pure and applied mathematics, probability theory, statistics, chaos, theoretical and applied dynamical systems, statistical mechanics, geophysical fluid dynamics, geosciences and complexity science. VALERIO LUCARINI, PhD, is Professor of Theoretical Meteorology at the University of Hamburg, Germany and Professor of Statistical Mechanics at the University of Reading, UK. DAVIDE FARANDA, PhD, is Researcher at the Laboratoire des science du climat et de l’environnement, IPSL, CEA Saclay, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. ANA CRISTINA GOMES MONTEIRO MOREIRA DE FREITAS, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto, Portugal. JORGE MIGUEL MILHAZES DE FREITAS, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal. MARK HOLLAND, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter, UK. TOBIAS KUNA, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Reading, UK. MATTHEW NICOL, PhD, is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Houston, USA. MIKE TODD, PhD, is Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. SANDRO VAIENTI, PhD, is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toulon and Researcher at the Centre de Physique Théorique, France.