Skip to Content
Report an accessibility problem
William Solecki

William Solecki

Professor and Founder Director, Emeritus, Department of Geography, Hunter College

wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu

212-772-4536

Department of Geography
Hunter College - The City University of New York
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Titles

  • Professor and Founder Director, Emeritus, Department of Geography, Hunter College

Biography

Solecki’s research focuses on urban environmental change, resilience, and adaptation transitions. He currently is a Professor within the Department of Geography at Hunter College-City University of New York. From 2006-2014, he served as the Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College. He also served as interim Director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay. He has co-lead several climate impacts studies in the greater New York and New Jersey region, including the New York City on Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). He recently was a lead author of the IPCC, Working Group II, Urban Areas chapter (chapter 8) and a coordinating lead author of the US National Climate Assessment, Urbanization, Infrastructure, and Vulnerability chapter (chapter 11). He is a co-founder of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), co-editor of Current Opinion on Environmental Sustainability, and founding editor of the Journal of Extreme Events. He holds degrees in Geography from Columbia University (BA) and Rutgers University (MA, PhD).

Education

  • PhD, Geography, Rutgers University, 1990
  • MA, Geography, Rutgers University, 1987
  • BA, Geography, Columbia University, 1984

External Links

Journal Articles

2022

Friedman, E., W. Solecki, T. G. Troxler and Z. Paganini. 2022. Linking Quality of Life and Climate Change Adaptation Through the Use of the Macro-Adaptation Resilience Toolkit. SSRN (link )

2019

Friedman, E., R. Breitzer and W. Solecki. 2019. Communicating extreme event policy windows: Discourses on Hurricane Sandy and policy change in Boston and New York City. Environmental Science and Policy 100(Oct):55-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2019.06.006. (link )

Solecki, W., N. Grimm, P. Marcotullio, C. Boone, J. Lobo, A. Luque, P. Romero-Lankao, A. Young, R. Zimmerman, R. Breitzer, C. Griffith, M. Watkins and A. Aylett. 2019. Extreme events and climate adaptation‐mitigation linkages: Understanding low‐carbon transitions in the era of global urbanization. WIREs: Climate Change 10(5):e616. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.616. (link )

2018

Garschagen, M., L. Porter, D. Satterthwaite, A. Fraser, M. Nolan, W. Solecki, E. Friedman, E. Dellas and F. Schreiber. 2018. The new urban agenda: From vision to policy and action. Planning Theory & Practice 19(1):117-137. DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2018.1412678. (link )

2016

Birkmann, J., T. Welle, W. Solecki, S. Lwasa and M. Garschagen. 2016. Boost Resilience of Small and Mid-Sized Cities. Nature 537(7622):605-608. DOI: 10.1038/537605a. (link )

2015

Solecki, W., K. C. Seto, D. Balk, A. Bigio, C. G. Boone, F. Creutzig, M. Fragkias, S. Lwasa, P. J. Marcotullio, P. Romero-Lankao and T. Zwickel. 2015. A conceptual framework for an urban areas typology to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation. Urban Climates 14(Part 1):116-137. DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2015.07.001. (link )

Books

2018

Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, P. Romero-Lankao, S. Mehrotra, S. Dhakal and S. A. Ibrahim. 2018. Climate Change and Cities: Second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1316603338.

2016

Sanderson, E., A. S. Parris, J. Waldman and W. Solecki. 2016. Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City's Jamaica Bay. Island Press. ISBN: 978-1610917322.

Book Chapters

2016

Horton, R. M., C. Rosenzweig, W. Solecki, D. Bader and L. Sohl. 2016. Climate Science for Decision-Making in the New York Metropolitan Region. Climate in Context: Science and Society Partnering for Adaptation. Wiley and Sons. Chichester, UK. DOI: 10.1002/9781118474785.ch3.

Posters

2017

Friedman, E., R. Breitzer and W. Solecki. 2017. Linking resilience and transformation as micro- and macro adaptation. Poster presented at the AGU Fall Meeting 2017, December 11-15, 2017, New Orleans, LA. (link )

Presentations

2017

Solecki, W. and E. Friedman. 2017. Risk management transition in New York City's coastal areas. Presentation at the Resilience 2017: Resilience Frontiers for Global Sustainability, August 20-23, 2017, Stockholm, Sweden. (link )

Reports

2015

Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, P. Romero-Lankao, S. Mehrotra, S. Dhakal, T. Bowman and S. A. Ibrahim. 2015. ARC3.2 Summary for City Leaders. Urban Climate Change Research Network. (link )

Report Chapters

2015

Chavez, A., H. Estiri, M. Pathak and R. Zimmerman. 2015. Chapter 12: Urban energy. Pp. 14-15 In: Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, P. Romero-Lankao, S. Mehrotra, S. Dhakal, T. Bowman and S. A. Ibrahim eds., ARC3.2 Summary for City Leaders. Urban Climate Change Research Network. New York, New York. (link )