MAINE PUBLIC • May 8, 2023
Dr. Rao Kotamarthi is one of the developers of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal. It's an online resource that makes projections of future climate impacts. And, with the help of supercomputers, the portal has divided the country into squares just seven-and-a-half miles wide. It means you can look at the climate change impacts on Fryeburg and see how they differ from Portland, or Bangor, or Eagle Lake. Kotamarthi says he first realized the importance of such local information a decade ago. He was part of a group of researchers who assessed infrastructure vulnerabilities in Portland Harbor and Casco Bay, which serves as a regional hub for shipping, along with other impacts on energy and the water cycle.