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Office of Sustainability
Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center Room 203
746 High Street
Easton PA, 18042
sustainability@lafayette.edu
746 High Street
Easton PA, 18042
sustainability@lafayette.edu
Climate Risk and Vulnerability
Climate risk describes how changing weather patterns and extreme climate events may affect Lafayette College’s people, buildings, operations, and long‐term mission.
For Lafayette, assessing climate risk means looking ahead to understand how future conditions could affect campus life, academic continuity, and critical physical assets.
Learn more about Lafayette’s Climate Risk and Vulnerability assessment in Section 8 of the full Climate Action Plan 3.0.
Vulnerability and Risk
To establish a campus‐specific climate risk baseline, Lafayette conducted a geospatial analysis that combined detailed campus mapping with publicly available, peer‐reviewed climate datasets.
The analysis indicates extreme heat and flooding pose the most significant climate‐related risks to Lafayette’s campus.
Rising temperatures are expected to lead to more frequent and prolonged heat events (159 days at 90th percentile heat degrees by 2050), affecting all campus assets and potentially impacting student comfort and health, academic and athletic activities, and energy demand for cooling.
Flooding, both from heavy rainfall and riverine sources, poses particular risks to buildings and infrastructure in low‐lying areas and near Bushkill Creek, with the potential to disrupt access, damage facilities, and result in costly repairs.
Together, these findings highlight the importance of proactive planning to strengthen campus resilience.
By understanding where climate risks are most likely to affect people and infrastructure, Lafayette can better prioritize investments to protect our community, safeguard essential assets, and ensure the campus remains functional and resilient in a changing climate.
To learn more about how Lafayette plans to prepare for and adapt to these climate risks, explore the Resiliency & Adaptation page (Section 9 in CAP 3.0).