Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Following on the steps of the successful Geo-Extreme 2021, this conference aims at creating a multi-disciplinary forum where the geo-engineering community can work with other professionals, e.g., climate scientists, engineers, emergency managers, resilience and sustainability investigators, insurance experts, and policy makers, to properly cope with man-made and natural extreme events (such as hurricanes, floods, extreme precipitations, droughts, wildfires, debris flows, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides) under a changing climate.
On the week of January 6, 2025, several wildfires broke out in Los Angeles County. Although most of the fires were contained fairly quickly, the Palisades and Eaton Fires continued to rage for over 3 weeks. When the fires were finally extinguished, entire communities were decimated leaving tens of thousands of people homeless in what is the costliest wildfire event in US history. This session will expose the resiliency gaps that led to infrastructure and community devastation, the wildfire’s aftermath, the need to rebuild with resilience, the legislative fallout, and preparing for the new normal. As natural disasters become more frequent and federal recovery funding comes under scrutiny, we should ask ourselves what will be the long-term impact to States and local agencies.
Moderators:
Rossana D'Antonio and Nazli Yesiller
Presenters:
Zev Yaroslavsky, UCLA
William S. Man, Los Angeles County Public Works
Chris Nigg, President of the League of California Cities Fire Chiefs
Want to learn more about the Geo-Institute? We're a technical society with about 12,000 members - mostly geotechnical engineers and geologists. Visit geoinstitute.org to get to know us!
#civilengineering #geotechnicalengineering #geotech #geoextreme
Following on the steps of the successful Geo-Extreme 2021, this conference aims at creating a multi-disciplinary forum where the geo-engineering community can work with other professionals, e.g., climate scientists, engineers, emergency managers, resilience and sustainability investigators, insurance experts, and policy makers, to properly cope with man-made and natural extreme events (such as hurricanes, floods, extreme precipitations, droughts, wildfires, debris flows, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides) under a changing climate.
On the week of January 6, 2025, several wildfires broke out in Los Angeles County. Although most of the fires were contained fairly quickly, the Palisades and Eaton Fires continued to rage for over 3 weeks. When the fires were finally extinguished, entire communities were decimated leaving tens of thousands of people homeless in what is the costliest wildfire event in US history. This session will expose the resiliency gaps that led to infrastructure and community devastation, the wildfire’s aftermath, the need to rebuild with resilience, the legislative fallout, and preparing for the new normal. As natural disasters become more frequent and federal recovery funding comes under scrutiny, we should ask ourselves what will be the long-term impact to States and local agencies.
Moderators:
Rossana D'Antonio and Nazli Yesiller
Presenters:
Zev Yaroslavsky, UCLA
William S. Man, Los Angeles County Public Works
Chris Nigg, President of the League of California Cities Fire Chiefs
Want to learn more about the Geo-Institute? We're a technical society with about 12,000 members - mostly geotechnical engineers and geologists. Visit geoinstitute.org to get to know us!
#civilengineering #geotechnicalengineering #geotech #geoextreme
