This week Kansas University is holding events devoted to the relationship between building design and climate change, the university announced today.

The KU School of Architecture, Design and Planning will hold a design forum focused on water issues. Sixty students will collaborate in teams to develop water-efficient designs that can deal with both the droughts and floods predicted by climate change models.

Teams will present their initial designs Friday at a 2 p.m. public event in Spooner Hall’s The Commons on the Lawrence campus. At 5 p.m. the school will host a roundtable discussion on water issues and climate change followed by a 7 p.m. keynote talk by Peter and Hadley Arnold, of the Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif.

Student design teams will present their final work at The Commons starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.