Transportation Sector Assessments and Tools
This tab provides climate science, vulnerability assessments, and tools for understanding climate change impacts to the water sector and potential adaptation options.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can also be sorted by date or title. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource type, region, and impact.
83 results are shown below.
Resource
February 2, 2015
From the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Beyond Traffic discusses the effects of climate change over the next 30 years, including global mean sea level rise, temperature increases, and more frequent and intense storm events, as impacts on highways, bridges, public transportation, coastal ports and waterways. Released in Draft format, the DOT is asking for feedback with the intention of producing a final version later in 2015.
Resource Category: Assessments
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January 2015
Led by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) and the City of Austin, Texas, this assessment is one of 19 national projects funded by the Federal Highway Administration to pilot approaches to conduct climate change and extreme weather vulnerability assessments of transportation infrastructure, and to analyze options for adapting and improving resiliency. Using the Department of Transportation’s Vulnerability Assessment Scoring Tool, the report evaluates the vulnerability of nine critical transportation assets – including Austin’s MetroRail Red Line and interstate highways – to climate stressors such as flooding, drought, extreme heat, wildfire, and icing.
Resource Category: Assessments
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November 19, 2014
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) conducted a sea-level rise vulnerability assessment for the corridor’s rail assets and is incorporating those findings into the agency’s Vision Plan, identifying sea-level rise as a critical issue in long-term planning and investments. The Capitol Corridor, which is managed but not owned by the CCJPA, serves as the primary public transportation connection between the Sacramento metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Large stretches of the corridor run along waterfronts and through marshlands and other areas that will be increasingly vulnerable to inundation and flooding during storm events as sea levels rise.
Resource Category: Planning
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December 2014
In 2014 the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) completed a study which assessed the vulnerability of the state’s transportation infrastructure to climate change and natural disasters. The Federal Highway Administration sponsored the report as part of a its Climate Change Resilience Pilot Program which assessed climate impacts for a number of states' transportation systems, and developed feasible adaptation strategies. As part of Oregon’s case study, ODOT, whose Adaptation Work Group provided guidance throughout the process, developed new sea level rise maps, collected baseline data, and used a case study to learn from existing coastal hazard mitigation projects - all of which are detailed in the report.
Resource Category: Assessments
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October 2014
"Highways in the Coastal Environment: Assessing Extreme Events" (HEC-25 Vol. 2) was developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to provide technical guidance for assessing vulnerabilities of highway infrastructure in coastal areas to climate change and extreme weather events. In particular, the manual identifies methods for quantifying exposure of coastal transportation facilities to sea-level rise, storm surge, and wave action. The information provided in the manual can be used to inform risk and vulnerability assessments, planning, and design guidelines for infrastructure.
Resource Category: Assessments
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October 11, 2014
Maryland’s State Highway Administration (SHA) carried out a vulnerability assessment to inform future policy and engineering approaches to manage climate induced risks. The vulnerability assessment focused on two Maryland counties, Anne Arundel and Somerset, as part of a larger pilot project funded by the Federal Highway Administration. The report aims to improve the SHA’s understanding of climate vulnerability and allow for the development, assessment, and implementation of strategies to protect transportation assets.
Resource Category: Planning
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September 2014
The Danish Road Directorate (DRD) developed a Blue Spot Analysis to identify roadways vulnerable to flooding under present conditions and future climate projections and to inform its climate change adaptation response. A “Blue Spot” is a section of road where there is both a high risk of flooding and significant consequences from flooding. Road flooding is the primary climate adaptation challenge for Denmark and is the focus of the DRD’s climate adaptation planning. The DRD’s strategy to adapt to road flooding is to manage flooding that occurs, improve roads when financially feasible, and to prevent climate-related impacts whenever possible.
Resource Category: Data and tools
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May 25, 2014
The U. S. Department of Transportation (U. S. DOT) developed this guide to help transportation agencies identify the most critical assets in their transportation systems. Identifying the critical assets can be a very effective way to help inform and narrow the scope of a transportation vulnerability assessment, making the assessment process much more manageable for an agency. The guide provides an overview of common challenges related to assessing asset criticality, options for defining criticality and identifying scope, and a process for applying criteria to rank assets' criticality.
Resource Category: Assessments
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June 2014
In support of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) Sustainable Communities program, the Georgetown Climate Center and Rutgers University's Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy released research papers examining 11 potential indicators that could help measure progress and demonstrate the benefits of sustainable communities.
Resource Category: Solutions
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April 2014
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) reviews the critical concerns and research priorities for environmental issues impacted by and affecting aviation activities in this report, including the issue of climate change. TRB evaluated the aviation impacts on noise, air quality, climate change, and water quality; sustainable solutions to minimize impacts; and processes and tools for solution implementation. Adaptation planning and preparedness is addressed with the general recommendation that downscaled, region-specific climate projections should be incorporated into airport planning processes and operations.
Resource Category: Assessments
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