Indicator Approach for Assessing Climate Change Vulnerability in Transportation Infrastructure

Abstract

From installing culverts with larger safety margins to instituting more frequent training for weather emergencies, transportation agencies around the world are adapting to extreme weather and climate change. An understanding of when and how to adapt (i.e., improve infrastructure preparedness) requires evaluating existing and future vulnerabilities to climate change and prioritizing adaptation efforts. A successful vulnerability assessment lays the groundwork for adaptation by building stakeholder relationships, spurring data collection, and prioritizing needs. One barrier faced by transportation agencies in conducting vulnerability assessments is a lack of financial and staff resources. The process of collecting climate and asset data can be particularly onerous for agencies struggling to meet daily operational needs. Two recent projects piloted a cost-effective screening method for highly vulnerable assets that used indicators developed from data already being collected by many state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations. The indicator that libraries developed during the course of these two studies is described. The results of the data-driven vulnerability screen provide transportation managers with a low-cost starting point toward understanding their system's vulnerabilities. Future research should focus on testing the indicators to identify and eliminate areas of overlap and on evaluating the prediction accuracy for exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

Vulnerability and resilience of transport systems – A discussion of recent research

“…To enhance resilience in transport systems, he identifies a need for research in areas such as organisational planning for hazard events, decision support tools for prioritising physical response and recovery of infrastructure networks, and suitable legal and contractual frameworks in the event of major disasters. As one example of such research, Rowan et al (2014) report on efforts to develop indicators for transport managers that will help them assess climate change vulnerabilities in their transport system. This research also indicates the importance of stakeholder engagement and collaboration for incorporating institutional knowledge into the assessment.…”

Incorporating climate change into culvert design in Washington State, USA

“…The first major step in developing a climate-adaptation plan is a vulnerability assessment, which consists of three components: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity (Rowan et al, 2014). For our purposes, exposure is the nature and degree of change in both hydrology and channel morphology that a culvert is predicted to experience in the future.…”

Modelling of Resilient Coping Strategies within the Framework of the Resilience Design Methodology for Load-Carrying Systems in Mechanical Engineering

“…To use the knowledge about the system's vulnerability, first it needs to be identified. One approach to do so, is a vulnerability analysis using the scenario technique [8][9][10]. With the scenario technique possible future situations are developed to assess the potential changes of conditions for the system.…”