Improving resilience against the effects of climate change

Abstract

Water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and other effects of climate change, especially in low coastal regions such as south Florida. Alternative water and wastewater recovery programs that work now may not be applicable in 100 years. Florida Atlantic University evaluated options that the water utility in the coastal community of the city of Pompano Beach, Fla., could apply to improve resilience to climate change effects. Immediate issues were that groundwater level rise resulting from sea level rise would create significant challenges to the utility's plans for new wells, aquifer recharge, hydrodynamic barrier programs, and reclaimed water programs. A number of potential solutions lie beyond the utility's control, and regional solutions will be needed to resolve long‐term effects. A rethinking of long‐term water management should include adaptation programs that consist of vulnerability analysis, infrastructure assessment, short‐ and long‐term applicability of current practices when considering effects of climate change, development of a toolbox of potential technical and management solutions, and a planning framework for increasing resilience and sustainability using adaptive management to deal with uncertainties.

Identification of Physical Transportation Infrastructure Vulnerable to Sea Level Rise

“…As a result, these projections were used as a basis for SLR projections. It was noted that the mid-range level of 3 feet is critical for low-lying coastal areas like southeast Florida where over half the urban areas has elevations below 5 feet National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD), making it highly vulnerable to inundation since mean high tide is approximately 2 feet above mean tide (Bloetscher et al, 2010(Bloetscher et al, , 2012. As a result, water, sewer, stormwater and transportation infrastructure in low-lying areas could be compromised.…”

The Infrastructure Imperative of Climate Change: Risk-Based Climate Adaptation of Infrastructure

“…The UN has identified that a high probability exists for rising sea levels to contaminate and subsequently reduce adequate freshwater supplies in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Thailand (UN, 2006). Bloetscher et al (2010) includes a case focused on mitigating climate change impacts on coastal water supplies and infrastructure. Additionally, with ice cap melting and subsequent sea level rise, stormwater infrastructure at low-lying, shallow elevations may not have the capacity to contain the rainfall events themselves, nor convey the rate of stormwater flow to outfalls, nor be physically capable of discharging if sea levels rise significantly enough to obstruct stormwater outfalls.…”

“…The top-down approach involves refining predictions of climate change, downscaling of climate models to apply them to local geographies and streamflow situations, and eventual IWRM planning (Miller et al, 2005). Some of this downscaling of models to local streamflows has progressed, including developing a transferable model of the process to expand applications (Bloetscher et al, 2010, Colorado Water Conservation Board [CWCB], 2011, King County, 2007, and Means et al, 2010. To address the high uncertainty associated with the timing and possible magnitude thresholds of climate impacts, Cromwell et al (2010a) proposes a third questions to guide the analysis: "What is the overall adaptation strategy that leads to more sustainable infrastructure over the course of this century -the sustainable path?"…”

“…While continuing to tie together suggested methodologies for adapting infrastructure in a cohesive manner in this chapter, Bloetscher et al (2010) presents another subsequent step. Bloetscher et al (2010) assesses vulnerable infrastructure for climate change impacts and presents specific strategies that could address the effects of climate change on that infrastructure.…”

“…Bloetscher et al (2010) assesses vulnerable infrastructure for climate change impacts and presents specific strategies that could address the effects of climate change on that infrastructure. Once the adaptation options have been determined, Bloetscher et al (2010) develops very specific strategies for addressing climate change impacts on the community on which their case focuses. The community examined in the case is Pompano Beach, Florida, a coastal city which could encounter various effects of climate change on their water assets.…”