It was announced in a recent University of Maryland (UMD) news post that “researchers in UMD’s Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and in the Supply Chain Management Center of the Robert H. Smith School of Business have begun work on a prototype of a highly localized ‘Climate Change Variability/Vulnerability Index.’” Interesting points to note:
- The impetus for the creation of the Index is research presented in Reslinc’s EventWatch Annual Report which covered the impact of disruptive events in 2017 including “natural disasters, business developments, and site-level disruptions,” in addition to “massive damage caused by 2018 hurricanes Florence and Michael.”
- The index should be available in early 2019 and is “designed to provide actionable information to supply chain executives so that they can make better decisions about how to allocate resources to reduce risk…Climate change varies greatly by location. Thus, the index will become even more important as it will seek to identify which supply chains are prone to the worst parts of a 1.5- or 2-degree Celsius global rise in temperature.”
