Machine learning and climate risk adaptation

Machine learning and climate risk adaptation

Author: PNAS June 2, 2025 Duration: 10:41

Using reinforcement learning to plan for an uncertain climate future

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Ning Lin talks about how reinforcement learning methods plant to mitigate climate risk despite uncertainty in climate change risk forecasts.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[1:04] Civil engineer Ning Lin introduces why climate forecast uncertainty complicates risk management planning.
•[02:41] Lin explains how reinforcement learning works.
•[03:26] She talks about why the team studied risk management for Manhattan.
•[04:54] Lin explains the results of the reinforcement learning study.
•[05:40] She recounts the results that surprised her.
•[07:25] Lin explains the takeaways from the study for emergency planners.
•[09:00] She enumerates the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[10:11] Conclusion.

About Our Guest:

Ning Lin
Professor
Princeton University

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2402826122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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