A graduate student at Waterloo Engineering is helping property owners, municipalities, engineers, planners, insurers and developers better understand climate-related risks so they can make informed decisions early in the development process.
Hasti Shwan, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering as well as a fellow in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program, created a platform called GeoSafe after identifying a need to pull together and simplify available information.
“One of the issues I saw in the industry is that many decision-makers, including property owners, municipalities, planners and infrastructure professionals, lack access to clear, understandable information about climate and environmental risks,” said Shwan, an engineer with almost two decades of experience before he returned to school at Waterloo.
“Although relevant information is available from governments, conservation authorities and other organizations, it is often highly technical, scattered across multiple sources and difficult to interpret."
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