Working in international finance in London and obtaining a Ph.D. from King\u2019s College, Davidson<\/a> observed the city\u2019s exploding housing crisis and wealth inequities of the 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The urban geographer then turned his attention to the U.S. At Clark since 2010, he has examined U.S. \u201cdonut cities\u201d<\/a> like San Francisco and San Jos\u00e9, with downtowns hollowed out by the global pandemic, growing homelessness, and fleeing businesses and customers; the gentrification of historically industrial cities like Detroit and Clark\u2019s host city of Worcester, Massachusetts; municipalities\u2019 Chapter 9 bankruptcies<\/a> after the 2008 Great Recession; and local governments\u2019 responses to ever-growing public pension liabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, Davidson says, cities now face an additional, unpredictable and daunting fiscal pressure layered onto all of these existing obligations: climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I look at the obligations that cities have \u2014 the bonds they have outstanding, the pension promises they\u2019ve made, the OPEBs [other post-employment benefits] that they carry, the deferred maintenance, there\u2019s a big debt stack there,\u201d said Davidson, whose current book project, \u201cRed Ink Urbanism\u201d (University of Minnesota Press), examines how the multiple debts of Nashville, Tennessee; Buffalo, New York; and San Jos\u00e9, shape the way they are governed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd climate is on top of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week, Davidson opened a national panel discussion organized by the School of Climate, Environment, and Society by framing the issues facing cities under climate change. The virtual event, \u201cThe Resilience Imperative: How Cities Can Survive, and Thrive, in an Era of Extreme Weather,\u201d brought together government and nonprofit leaders who shared how cities and states across the U.S. are improving their climate resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His co-panelists included Melissa Hoffer, appointed by Gov. Maura Healey as Massachusetts\u2019 first chief climate officer; Patricia Lock Dawson, mayor of Riverside, California; and Saharnaz Mirzazad, CEO of ICLEI, a global network of more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe economics are compelling. For the last 10 years, FEMA has been saying that for every one dollar you spend on hazard mitigation, you’re saving $6 in future costs.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 professor mark davidson<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n To address climate-related heatwaves, flooding, and severe storms, U.S. cities have long relied on short-term federal funding and grants like the nearly $400 billion in investments allotted through the Biden administration\u2019s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) or disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Davidson pointed out, \u201cit\u2019s difficult to ask fiscally constrained cities to manage something like climate risk, which is now a permanent problem, using temporary funds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think cities lack an awareness of climate risk,\u201d he said. \u201cThey lack durable capacity. Through innovation, they can get some of the way there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most successful local governments are embedding climate resiliency in their fiscal planning and daily decision making, according to Davidson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe economics are compelling. For the last 10 years, FEMA has been saying that for every one dollar you spend on hazard mitigation, you’re saving $6 in future costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cities also are partnering with universities like Clark, community organizations, private firms, regional bodies, and networks such as the ICLEI \u201cto build that capacity, not just transfer knowledge,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His co-panelists provided examples of the innovative ways in which cities and states are building climate resiliency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Riverside<\/a>, which this week faced extreme heat warnings and temperatures up to 110 degrees, the city has launched initiatives like Ready Riverside, which informs residents how to stay safe during heatwaves, wildfires like the one that destroyed Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles (above, a view of the wildfire from Santa Monica Pier)<\/em>, and other emergencies, Mayor Lock Dawson said. The city also hosted an Extreme Heat Summit and simulated emergency planning session and created a \u201ctree plotter\u201d program for residents to identify gaps where shade trees could be planted to cool neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Climate resilience benefits the city\u2019s economy, she said. \u201cFor too long, we’ve pitted what’s good for the environment [against what\u2019s] bad for the economy or vice versa. And that is such a false choice. \u2026 The two things absolutely complement and leverage each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Massachusetts, Hoffer said, the Healey administration identified $90 billion to $130 billion worth of investments needed to address extreme-climate-related issues, including improving culverts, dams, and other infrastructures and maintaining natural carbon sinks \u2014 trees and wetlands \u2014 to prevent coastal and inland flooding. The administration created the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank to preserve and retrofit affordable housing for energy efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s now achieving 70 to 100 percent-modeled energy reduction, which is incredible because that means lifetime energy cost savings for the inhabitants of that housing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents also can obtain low-interest loans from the Community Climate Bank to fortify or replace their roofs and add solar panels, as well as install energy-efficient heat pumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere will never be enough public dollars. What we had previously in the IRA was a good accelerator. But now without that, we have to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 melissa hoffer, chief climate officer for massachusetts<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The state also is partnering with cities and universities such as Clark\u2019s School of Climate, Environment, and Society, according to Hoffer. After Worcester received a $400,000 municipal grant to create climate-resilient Miyawaki forests, Geography Professor John Rogan and his students helped plant two forests<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hoffer championed the school\u2019s Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) program<\/a>, led by Rogan and urban geography Professor Deborah Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past decade, the HERO program has partnered with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation\u2019s Greening the Gateway Cities program to counteract the effects of urban \u201cheat islands\u201d in historic industrial cities, where central neighborhoods can be up to 20 degrees hotter than leafier suburban areas just a few miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The heat-island project is a \u201cvisible\u201d example of a successful academic-state-city partnership that \u201ccan teach folks about the value of coming together,\u201d Hoffer said, providing everyone involved with \u201ca sense of empowerment to address climate issues, and that is hugely important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likewise, ICLEI USA has worked with cities such as Boynton Beach, Florida, and Pittsburgh to plant trees. These natural solutions are proven to counteract the effects of heatwave emergencies, which cost $162 billion in the United States just last year and, over the past two decades, have killed 20,000 people, Mirzazad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, there is little funding to address heatwave emergencies, she acknowledged. \u201cFEMA funding and, frankly, any federal funding, is stretched thin. And in many cases heat resilience is not even treated as an emergency,\u201d she said. \u201cMany of the local governments across the country don\u2019t have heat in their hazard mitigation plans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local governments, therefore, are forming \u201ccross-sector tables \u2026 on decision-making and bringing the private sector into the room,\u201d Mirzazad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hoffer acknowledged the lack of funding as well. \u201cThere will never be enough public dollars,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we had previously in the IRA was a good accelerator. But now without that, we have to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Aug. 25 panel discussion was moderated by Megan Houston, director of external partnerships and experiential learning for the School of Climate, Environment, and Society, who, before coming to Clark, led climate resilience and sustainability initiatives across the local government and nonprofit sectors for 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Organized by the School of Climate, Environment, and Society, a national panel discussion Organized by the School of Climate, Environment, and Society, a national panel discussion addresses how cities are addressing the challenges of extreme weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29325,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-orange)","story_headerImg":29325,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[241],"displayed_author":[242],"featured":[495],"topic":[529,131,160,165,162,134],"class_list":["post-29322","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-sustainability","displayed_author-meredith-woodward-king","featured-research","topic-climate","topic-climate-change","topic-faculty-research","topic-geography","topic-research","topic-school-of-climate-environment-and-society"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Geography](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019-Mark-Davidson-web-1024x782.avif\")
![\"Flooding](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/StPetersburgflooding-web-1024x683.avif\")