On-Demand Webcasts

On-demand sessions are available to view at your convenience for CM credit through December 31, 2023

** More webcasts will be added to this list throughout the year **

 

Planning for Sustainable Energy Production: A Nature-Based Approach to Large-Scale Solar

#9262544
CM | 1.5
SR | 1.0

Ecosystem services and… solar energy? It’s not exactly chocolate and peanut butter. This webinar will present the ground-breaking results of the PV-SMaRT project and the “community co-benefits” approach to solar development. This U.S. DOE funded project developed new tools for planners to assess water quality risks and opportunities associated with solar energy. The webinar will also introduce a new project, launching in 2023, on nature-based solutions for solar development that can provide communities with more tools for ensuring local benefits from large-scale solar development.

Large-scale solar is a rapidly growing land use that is critically important to solving the climate crisis, but also poses unique risks and opportunities to local ecosystem functions, including water quality, soil health, habitat, and cultural/visual functions. Indeed, some solar projects have resulted in spectacular water quality failures or ecosystem damage. But the opportunity for creating “co-benefits” in local ecosystems is also remarkable. Planning professionals strive to protect community natural systems in the development process. If we restore watershed functions, create new habitat and build soil health… is it a solar farm, or is it green infrastructure?

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Planning for Equity: Supporting At-Risk Communities in Regions That Flood

#9262811
CM | 1.5
SR | 1.0

At-risk communities are disproportionately impacted both by increased flooding and the policy and market responses to flooding conditions. In this context, what is “social equity” and how is it related to climate resilience for all? How can planners ensure an equitable response to flooding?

Panelists Shannon Van Zandt and Jaimie Hicks Masterson of Texas A&M University and Dr. Tisha Holmes of Florida State University will talk to planners about working in partnership with communities of color and other socio-economically disadvantaged communities to increase resilience to flood risk and its associated impacts. Drawing on urban and rural examples across the United States, this program will illustrate the proactive role for planning in addressing equity issues in flooding-impacted regions. These issues include infrastructure planning and provision for at-risk communities, market pressures leading to displacement, planned retreat, emergency management, and community capacity building, to name a few.

Climate change will continue to disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. This session will highlight why social equity needs to be front and center regarding all climate action and will highlight how equity has been integrated in the tools and resources overviewed.

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The Climate Data Power Hour

#9262596
CM | 1.5
SR | 1.0

As climate conditions change, understanding what data and tools are available to inform planning decisions is critical. This webinar features a climate data & technology vendor panel to introduce urban planners to data and tools to help communities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and respond to climate impacts. During this session, each climate data and technology provider will speak for (5-7 minutes). These presentations will be followed by a facilitated discussion with all providers.

This webinar is sponsored jointly by The APA Technology Division, APA Sustainable Communities Division, and APA's Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Planning Division and is based on a similar event organized by Alta Planning + Design.

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