As Climate Week NYC kicks off, NYIT's Jeffrey Raven, AIA, LEED BD+C, an internationally recognized leader in sustainable and resilient urban design, is available to discuss architectural and design considerations in the face of climate change.

The People's Climate Watch is scheduled for Sunday, September 21, with thousands of people expected to demonstrate for climate action. On Tuesday, President Obama will join world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit.

Raven, an associate professor and director of NYIT's Master of Architecture in Urban + Regional Design, has led sustainable-resilient urban workshops for global experts in Europe, India, and China. His research integrates climate science, natural systems and urban form to configure dynamic, desirable, and healthy communities.

"Climate-resilient public realm measures would strengthen community adaptability to climate change and mitigate the urban heat island effect through the creation of systemic, interconnected, and protective micro-climates within the public realm intended to reduce energy loads, produce cleaner air, and enhance civic life," says Raven.

Raven has applied his professional practice in India, Romania, the South Bronx, Abu Dhabi, New Jersey, and Vietnam, among other areas around the world.

"Resilience is often defined as the ability to bounce back after a catastrophic event, but resilient cities also need to be able to bounce forward," he says. "In this sense, sustainability and resilience in urban development should be understood as a dynamic continuum, developing physical and institutional capacity to adjust for constant change, for mitigating the impact of climate change and for meeting energy-reduction goals, as well as for sustaining population in more energy-efficient settings by providing amenities people need and want."

Raven is author of Cooling the Public Realm, Resilient Cities (Springer 2011) and Climate-Resilient Urban Design, and is co-author of the urban design and cities section of the U.S. National Climate Assessment (2012).