PA 6: Study + Design for Long-Term Adaptability, Diversity + Redundancy – Above Green

(4-12 points)

INTENT

Prepare buildings, communities and infrastructure systems to be resilient to the consequences of long-term climate change, perform adequately under altered climate and resource conditions, or adapt to other long-term change scenarios. System diversity and redundancy should be considered and accounted for in the approach. There is preference for ecologically based resiliency approaches over a hardened infrastructure approach.

Utilize diversity, redundancy, adaptability + interlocking systems to enhance project, organization and community resilience. Explore shock-resistant planning and design for extreme weather events/heat waves along with ongoing adaptation to increasing ambient temperatures, sea level rise + flood intensity, water security + food security, energy security, transportation access, community cohesion and local self-reliance.

Planning + design interventions should result in complementary systems and technics that have low demands for and/or produce water, energy, material + resources (of all kinds) while supporting: diversity + biodiversity that offer stabilizing levels of redundancy/ back-up; individual, community + ecological health, vitality + cohesion; local/regional self-reliance + development capacity; shock resistance + recovery potential.

STRUCTURES AND COMMUNITIES | REQUIREMENTS (4 POINTS)

Implement plans and designs to prepare for long-term climate and resource change including the effects of increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, water scarcity, sea level rise, extended droughts and heat waves, and increased ambient temperature.

Restore and rehabilitate the effects of long-term change, including desertification, beach erosion, and loss of wetlands. Shoreline restoration activities also minimize the effects of climate change on inland populations, including flooding and extreme weather events.

Resilient systems include diversity, redundancy and buffers as essential principles. Design approaches should include modular + distributed design providing for partial system failure without total system failure. Subsystems nested into larger systems, coupled with stored resources, can offer short-term redundancy and they can be used to take the stress off larger systems during extreme events.

PA Action 6.1(A) (4 points)

Study: Explore opportunities for long-term adaptability relevant to the project scope

Identify and characterize site-specific, neighborhood, local + regional opportunities for long-term adaptation. The study is to be done in sufficient depth to determine possibilities with aggressive searching and screening of opportunities.

Make contact with, pursue and include appropriate decision-makers across multiple disciplines and areas of expertise. Possible synergies must be clearly identified. Conduct research that is specific to the site, neighborhood, locality and/or region relative to the project’s scope.

Core opportunities for exploration:

Food security
Increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, sea level rise, heat waves, increased ambient temperatures, extended droughts
Sea level rise and increased flooding
Water security

Additional opportunities (explore at least one):

Economic security
Energy security
Increased Community Cohesion + Self-Reliance
Transportation
Other project-specific issues

Guidance: Envision V2 Prepare for Long Term Adaptability | Leadership Credit CR2.3.  https://sustainableinfrastructure.org/ (login for free access)

PA Action 6.1(B) (8 points)

Design: Develop and Execute Strategies from the Opportunities Studied

Note: The PA Action 6.1(A) study must be completed before PA Action 6.1(B).

Demonstrate improvements of at least 30% more resilience and robustness than conventional design for issues pertinent to the site, neighborhood, location and region. Planned ecological restorations and simulations should demonstrate a 50% or greater improvement in productivity over 10 years + 80% improvement over 20 years.

Execute (1) Opportunity explored in the study (cannot be the project-specific opportunity)
Execute (2) Opportunities explored in the study (cannot include the projectspecific opportunity)
Execute (3-6) Opportunities explored in the study
Execute (7) Opportunities explored in the study

Guidance: Envision V2 Prepare for Long-Term Adaptability | Leadership Credit LD2.3.  https://sustainableinfrastructure.org/ (login for free access)