Intense heat waves are sweeping much of Europe and the United States, with many parts of the US and the UK recording alarmingly high temperatures. These extreme heat events, happening most recently but also over the last several years, are impacting critical infrastructure in a number of ways.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Kim Roddis, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the George Washington University. Professor Roddis is a structural engineer who is recognized nationally as an expert in distortion-induced fatigue of steel highway bridges and internationally known as an expert on the application of artificial intelligence and advanced computing methods to civil engineering problem solving.
Professor Roddis can explain how extreme heat events impact critical infrastructure like roads, railways, bridges, etc. She can also speak to the short-term and long-term solutions to protecting infrastructure from extreme heat.
“This is one reason why a particular temperature, say 100 degrees, may cause significant infrastructure problems in the UK while not causing problems in the American Southwest because the expected temperature accounted for in the design is different in different places,” Professor Roddis says. “Climate change is increasing temperatures on infrastructure that was designed for historic ‘normal’ temperatures. Now engineers design new infrastructure taking climate change into account.”
If you would like to speak with Professor Roddis, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-