Climate Change Planning at HGL
HGL is growing its service areas to meet the environmental challenges facing our world today. We are expanding our expertise areas to incorporate ways to reverse harmful impacts to the environment, restore our natural resources, and protect our future. I am proud to introduce one of our newest areas of expertise, Climate Change Planning. Our subject matter expert and leader of our Climate Change Planning community of practice, Regina Bergner, is taking over this installment of my blog to provide more information about HGL’s latest endeavor.
Climate change is no longer a looming threat. Climate change is already affecting global food supplies, energy prices, water resources, plant and animal habitats, supply chains and maritime transportation, insurance costs, zoning regulations, building codes, and many other aspects of our lives. The figure below shows how weather and climate disasters in 2022 were spread across the country and included floods, droughts, fires, and extreme storms.
Planning for climate change will require new thinking about how we do business, how we consider remedies and solutions, and how we add value to our client’s mission. HGL is helping clients develop sustainable and resilient programs, facilities, and operations. Our job has always been to help our clients address potential vulnerabilities, and, with our new Climate Change Planning community of practice, we can expand this service to address their vulnerabilities related to climate change. Identifying and then assessing project and program vulnerabilities requires deep knowledge of the subject matter and client mission, as well as an understanding of how some vulnerabilities may be related to others.
Developing sustainable and resilient solutions to the challenges presented by climate change requires a multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach. HGL’s expertise in key areas allow us to integrate climate change planning into all the work we do. This expertise stems from our experience in performing water modeling, saltwater intrusion modeling, flood and drought modeling, vulnerability and risk assessment, remedy evaluation, remedial design, optimization and monitoring, GIS and geospatial analysis, and ecosystem restoration, including mine site reclamation and sediment remediation.
We are excited to bring our expertise to bear as the climate change planning practice continues to grow within HGL in meeting critical environmental challenges.
Contact Regina at rbergner@hgl.com to learn more about climate change planning at HGL.
