UT_PTX2050_Full_MASTER (1)

The questions that we're facing are all going to hit Texas first. How much water do we have? Where is the water now? How much energy do we have? Where are we producing the energy? What are the ecosystems looking like right now, and are we able to preserve them? We may reach a population of as many as 55 million people, and we're in the upper 20 millions right now. As the cities grow, where should they build? Where should they avoid building? We know that we will be having more extreme weather events: wildfires droughts floods. Every extreme weather event we have in this state, we lose lives. Hurricane Harvey inflicted a tremendous amount of misery. It's just not acceptable to me personally that we are waiting for the next event to hit. We should be able to do better. This really is a grand research challenge. A grand challenge is a problem that requires an approach that goes beyond traditional research and disciplinary boundaries. Planet Texas 2050 is focusing on four research areas: water energy urbanization and ecosystem services, which are just the benefits that nature provides. The Planet Texas 2050 initiative draws from across the university from 14 different disciplines throughout UT Austin itself. And that includes architects, public health experts, lawyers... We have a hydrologist. We have a supercomputing expert. We need to have people with different perspectives looking at how to solve the problems. What we're trying to do is share our pieces of the puzzle to see if we can put them together in a way that actually makes a picture. What we want to come out with is a platform that will help decision-makers understand the facts on the ground and the impact of different kinds of decisions. We need to have the companies that are doing business in Texas to be involved. We can learn from them, and they can learn from what it is that we're doing. Our job is to solve problems. We need to know how to manage these resources going forward. Texas, even as big as it is, can serve as a microcosm. The knowledge that we generate will be applicable to other places in the U.S. and perhaps even around the world. Now is the time to take action. There's no better place to look at these issues and come up with solutions than The University of Texas at Austin.