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Strategic Objective
ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Strategic Objective
Overview
Recent weather events such as Superstorm Sandy, which disrupted major portions of air, highway, transit, and rail line service in the New Jersey-New York metropolitan region, has prompted us to consider more carefully how we plan, design, and build transportation infrastructure. Superstorm Sandy was the largest tropical storm to impact the Northeast U.S. in recent history. Climate change research predicts that storms will become stronger, so we need to consider climate change impacts and the incorporation of adaptation strategies into DOT planning, operations, policies, and programs so that taxpayer resources are invested wisely and that transportation infrastructure, services and operations remain effective under extreme climate conditions. We will encourage DOT funding recipients to perform climate change vulnerability assessments for their transportation infrastructure and integrate the results into planning their decision-making.
Read Less...Progress Update
The number of States, eligible Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs) conducting a vulnerability assessment increased to 69 as continued outreach identified new opportunities to apply the vulnerability assessment framework. To facilitate this effort, FHWA published state-of-the-practice and case studies for transportation agencies to use in conducting climate vulnerability and resilience work. These included an Assessment of the Body of Knowledge and five vulnerability and risk assessment pilot project case studies. Also, FHWA promoted the use of their updated framework for conducting systems-level vulnerability and risk assessments of infrastructure likely to be impacted by climate change effects for use by State and local transportation agencies. Two interactive workshops were held to demonstrate the suite of tools FHWA developed for conducting vulnerability assessments. FHWA completed the Gulf Coast 2 project, in which the Agency conducted an overall vulnerability assessment of the Mobile, AL area, developed detailed engineering assessments of select transportation facilities, and released a suite of adaptation tools and procedures that could be more broadly transferred to communities nationwide. In addition, FHWA funded 19 climate resilience pilots at State DOTs and MPOs across the country and is leading a multi-agency study to learn from the impacts of Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene on the transportation systems in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The pilots are largely complete and are pending official release. The post Sandy study should be completed in summer 2016.
