Evaluating Climate Change Hazards within the US Midwest Zone

The US Midwest region known for its web of lakes, rivers and vast swaths of farmland ranks high as the nation’s food basket. Being a huge agricultural hub tied to global markets, the region’s immediate influence spans across multiplicity of states supported by a flourishing supply chain network sustained by farming centers and activities in and outside of the Midwest. Notwithstanding the region’s place as an active farm hub, it is slowly emerging as an epicenter of changing climatic hazards with the manifestations evident in different forms over the years. With many of the risks and recurrent changes now a common trend among various states. The impacts come under varying forms including impairment to the environment through damage to property, elevated and falling temperatures as well as displacement of people. In as much as several efforts have been made by agencies in the zone to remedy the situation. The changing climate in the Midwest does not occur in isolation, as most of that are attributed to socio-economic, physical, environmental and policy elements located within the larger ecological system. Even at that, very little has been done in the literature to assess the changing climate situation in the study area using a mix scale model anchored in GIS and descriptive environmental statistics. Accordingly, this enquiry will fill that void in research by assessing climate change hazards in the Midwest using mix scale techniques and secondary data with emphasis on the issues, trends, impacts, factors, and efforts. In applying these tools, results show widespread surge in changing climatic impacts with exposures to severe risks in the surrounding ecology of the states. Furthermore, spatial mappings of change using GIS pinpointed the gradual diffusion of risks on clusters of areas deemed epicenters of disasters along heavily impacted spots over time, due to a set of factors from socio-economic and physical variables. To address the risks, the paper offered solutions in the form of education, enactment of effective policies, the design of regional climate risks info systems and the installation of advanced early warning devices to alert the communities while ensuring public safety.