Five George Mason researchers receive funding for Center for Climate Risks Applications

Luis Ortiz, assistant professor, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences (AOES); Fengxui Zhang, assistant professor, Schar School of Policy and Government; Edward Oughton, assistant professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science; Natalie Burls, associate professor, AOES, and Director, Climate Dynamics Program; and James Kinter, director, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA); director, Virginia Climate Center; professor, Climate Dynamics PhD program, and chair, AOES, College of Science, received funding for: “IUCRC: Planning Grant: George Mason University: Center for Climate Risks Applications (CCRA).”

George Mason University will lead, in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the City University of New York will propose the creation of the CCRA Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) to fill critical research gaps needed to deal with the challenges that the insurance, reinsurance, and financial sectors are facing as a result of a changing climate.

The Center partners will collaboratively operate CCRA to address industry challenges related to natural perils, conducting research to (1) improve the capacity of yearly to decadal climate predictions; (2) model catastrophic impacts of natural perils to infrastructure systems; and (3) quantify how global climate change modifies the frequency, intensity, and impact of weather-related hazards on people and property. 

Specifically, CCRA researchers will address quantifying the impacts of climate change-driven perils, vulnerability, and exposure which generate risk to insured/financed assets across regions and sectors.

CCRA researchers will co-develop research projects with industry partners centered around the three drivers of risk to improve natural catastrophe modeling under a changing climate: hazards, vulnerability, and exposure. The scientists will leverage expertise in climate science, engineering, policy, social sciences, and earth observations to improve existing natural catastrophe modeling methods to improve insurance sector operations and resilience of their asset portfolios to extreme events. 

“Climate change is already wreaking havoc on our ability to predict weather hazards at the temporal and spatial scales needed to insure assets, leading to billions in losses last year alone. CCRA researchers will conduct research to close knowledge gaps that are unique to this sector of the economy and solve challenges that affect not just industry but people’s property and livelihoods,” Ortiz said.                                                                                                              

The researchers received $20,000 from the National Science Foundation for this project to build the Center. Funding began in September 2024 and will end in August 2025.