Escaping the Heat: Climate Change and Visitation to the Lake Tahoe Basin
In this lecture presented by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center Dr. Handy will discuss the implications for managing peak visitation, reducing transportation emissions, and protecting the ecological integrity of climate refuge destinations like Lake Tahoe.
As climate change drives rising temperatures across the western United States, outdoor recreation destinations like Lake Tahoe are experiencing shifting visitation patterns. In this talk, Dr. Susan Handy presents findings from her research, Escaping the Heat: Climate Change and Visitation to the Lake Tahoe Basin, and also shares how the study came about, the broader climate-related questions that motivated the work, and the more general challenges of managing transportation in the region.
Using visitation data and climate modeling, the study explores whether travelers are increasingly seeking cooler mountain destinations during heat events—and what this trend means for transportation systems, environmental sustainability, and regional planning. Dr. Handy will discuss the implications for managing peak visitation, reducing transportation emissions, and protecting the ecological integrity of climate refuge destinations like Lake Tahoe.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Susan Handy is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis and Director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation. Her research focuses on the relationships among transportation, land use, travel behavior, and climate change. Through interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research, she examines how transportation systems can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while improving community livability and resilience.
Source: https://tahoequarterly.com/around-town/addressing-tahoes-traffic-burden
Doors open at 5:00 p.m with a mixer with snacks and a no-host bar. Presentation begins at 6:00 p.m. at the UC Davis Tahoe Science Center at 201 Country Club Dr., Incline Village NV 89451.
Advanced ticketing purchased online is $10, and same-day tickets are $15 at the door, this presentation is free for students with a student ID.
For more information call 775-881-7560 or email tercinfo@ucdavis.edu.
