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As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Reza Najafi, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western University and head of the Hydroclimate Extremes and Climate Change Lab (HydroClimEX Lab), co-director of the Centre for Multihazard Risk and Resilience (CMRR), will present Compound flood and drought hazards in a changing climate: Implications for risk and resilience.
This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking lunch reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl).
https://uwaterloo.ca/water-institute/events/compound-flood-and-drought-hazards-changing-climate
More Info
Floods and droughts represent two ends of the hydroclimatic spectrum, yet their occurrence is increasingly interconnected in both time and space. Climate change is amplifying the drivers of compound and cascading events, ranging from coastal flooding caused by storm surge-precipitation interactions to inland floods triggered by snowmelt, rain-on-snow, or successive storms. At the same time, many regions are experiencing intensified hydroclimatic swings, with abrupt transitions between wet and dry conditions that compound risks across seasons. This talk examines recent advances in understanding these complex hazards across North America and other regions experiencing pronounced variability, including the Great Lakes Basin and coastal areas. Drawing on high-resolution climate and hydrologic modelling, long-term observations, and stochastic analyses, I will illustrate how shifting extremes, antecedent conditions, and inter-event dependencies amplify risk. The discussion extends to infrastructure interdependencies, where failures in one system can propagate through transportation, energy, and water networks, underscoring the need for integrated, cross-sectoral resilience planning. By combining statistical, process-based, and systems approaches, the research highlights that compound hazards and hydroclimatic swings are not rare coincidences but emerging norms of a nonstationary climate. The talk concludes with pathways for adaptive design and multi-hazard resilience under deep uncertainty.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Reza Najafi is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western University, where he leads the Hydroclimate Extremes and Climate Change Lab (HydroClimEX Lab). His interdisciplinary research addresses the growing challenges posed by nonstationary hydroclimatic extremes, particularly floods and droughts, in a changing climate. Drawing on expertise in engineering, hydrology, climate science, risk assessment, and data analytics, his work explores the dynamic interactions between natural hazards and infrastructure systems. Dr. Najafi is also the co-founder and co-director of the Centre for Multihazard Risk and Resilience (CMRR), which fosters cross-faculty collaboration and practitioner engagement through research, training, and annual workshops. He serves as Associate Editor for Water Resources Research (AGU) and Weather and Climate Extremes, and contributes to national climate assessments and resilience frameworks supporting both the natural and built environment.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
University of Waterloo, DC - William G. Davis Computer Research Centre DC 1302, Wetness Protection, Waterloo, ON N2L, Canada
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
