Resilience Hubs: Designing Critical and Equitable Community Infrastructure in Response to Climate Disasters

Planet Texas 2050 invites you to a semester-long Resilience Roundtable panel discussion series featuring leaders across the academic, non-profit, government, advocacy, and commercial sectors. Roundtables will include 2-3 speakers and a moderator from the Planet Texas 2050 leadership team and will be organized around topic areas drawn from the City of Austin’s climate equity plan as well other topics that intersect with the issues of resilience, climate justice, disaster response, biodiversity, environmental humanities, and more. Each panel discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A session and collective brainstorming towards continued action.

Resilience Hubs: Designing Critical and Equitable Community Infrastructure in Response to Climate Disasters

When Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in February 2021, it exposed the vulnerabilities in our water and energy systems, but also the unequal vulnerabilities in our communities along the lines of income, housing status, immigration status, race, age, and disability. In the aftermath of the storm, an idea that gained traction among a suite of solutions is the development of “Resilience Hubs.” As community-serving facilities designed to support residents and coordinate resource distribution and services before, during, or after a disruption, resilience hubs, if designed well, can equitably enhance community resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving local quality of life. The City of Austin is currently planning the design and implementation of resilience hubs in different parts of the city. It is imperative to center equity in the process of developing community infrastructure in order to best prepare and respond to future climate disasters such as heat, flooding, wildfires, and cold.

Join us in a conversation between researchers, community groups, and city officials that seeks to bridge community-articulated needs to research and action.

Marc Coudert is the Environmental Program Manager at the City of Austin Office of Sustainability. Marc works with city departments to embed climate adaptation strategies into long term operation and asset management planning. In this role, he also supports community organizers to increase climate adaptation in the Eastern Crescent. Marc received a Certificate in Climate Change and Health from the Yale School of Public Health, a Master of Science in Sustainable Design from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning from Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He is a member of the NACCHO Global Climate Change Workgroup.

Frances Acuña is the Climate Resilience Lead Organizer for Go Austin/Vamos Austin (GAVA). She has lived in southeast Austin for 25 years. She began advocating for the Dove Springs community in 2010 and in 2012, she became a Texas Certified Community Healthworker and started getting involved with GAVA as a community leader. She also worked with fellow community members serving as first responders during the October 2013 and 2015 floods in Dove Springs. In 2017, Frances joined GAVA as a Community Organizer where she worked to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. Later, with continued floods and residents being displaced due to flooding and infrastructure issues, she became the Climate Resilience Lead Organizer where she concentrates her efforts bridging the communication gap between residents and stakeholders, emphasizing response and responsibility where equity and public safety is a mutual priority. When she is not spending her time in the community organizing or meeting with stakeholders, you can find her in her garden or spending time with her family.

Katherine Lieberknecht is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin. She researches urban water resources planning, metropolitan-scaled green infrastructure planning, and urban climate planning. Dr. Lieberknecht teaches courses on sustainable land use planning, water resources planning, and urban ecology. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked in regional land conservation. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the College of William and Mary, a Master in Environmental Management from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. Dr. Lieberknecht was the inaugural chair of Planet Texas 2050, The University of Texas at Austin’s first grand challenge research program. She is the faculty lead for the Texas Metro Observatory, a Planet Texas 2050 research project and co-lead for the Planet Texas 2050 Flagship Project Equitable and Regenerative Cities in a Post-Carbon Future.