[Statlist] Workshop on Environmental Risk and Extreme Events

[Anne-Lise Courvoisier]

   Apologies for cross-posting
   =====================
   This  is  to  announce  and invite you to participate in a workshop on
   Environmental Risk and Extreme Events,
   to be held at the Centro Stefano Francsini in Ascona, Switzerland, from July
   10-15 2011.
   Major environmental effects of climate change will be conveyed not through
   its effects on mean temperatures,
   rainfall or other climatic variables, but through changes in the frequency
   and severity of extreme events,
   such as heatwaves, windstorms and heavy rainfall.  Such events can have
   major consequences for the built and
   natural environments, and may have large economic and ecological costs in
   addition to their potential for
   severe impacts on human health–the estimated 30,000 or more excess deaths in
   Europe during the summer
   heatwave of 2003 being an obvious example.  The impact of such events has
   long been understood within certain
   communities of environmental scientists.  Civil and construction engineers,
   hydrologists, and increasingly
   climatologists use statistical techniques based on the probabilistic theory
   of extreme values to guide them
   in modelling the sizes and frequencies of rare events.  The traditional uses
   of these ideas do not accommodate
   the complexities of modelling uncertainties in a changing environment, in
   which non-stationarity and spatial and
   temporal dependence must be taken into account for useful forecasting and
   realistic impact assessment.  The
   purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers in statistics of
   extremes and in applied domains
   for whom this branch of statistical science is a key tool, in order to
   assess the state of the art in modelling
   of complex extreme events, to highlight ideas emerging from the statistical
   side that may be useful in
   applications, and to identify challenging environmental problems that need
   statistical innovations from both
   theoretical and applied researchers.
   The workshop will comprise invited talks and contributed talks and posters.
    At this stage confirmed speakers
   include: Peter Challenor (Southampton), Petra Friederichs (Bonn),Douglas
   Maraun (Keil), Doug Nychka (NCAR),
   Brian Reich (NCSU), Holger Rootzén (Chalmers), Richard Smith (UNC), Jonathan
   Tawn (Lancaster), and
   Francis Zwiers (Victoria).
   We invite contributed papers, either oral or poster presentations, on topics
   within the ambit of the meeting.
   More details, including fees and access to the registration form, may be
   found at [1]http://stat.epfl.ch/ascona2011
   Please forward this email to others who may be interested in participating.

   We look forward to seeing you in Ascona.
   Anthony Davison, Philippe Naveau and Jonathan Tawn

--
Anne-Lise Courvoisier
Section de Mathématiques
EPFL FSB SMA  - Station 8
CH-1015 Lausanne
Tél. 021 693 2565 - Fax  021 693 5510
[2]http://sma.epfl.ch/

References

   1. http://stat.epfl.ch/ascona2011
   2. http://sma.epfl.ch/