Transportation Sector Case Studies
These resources include case studies of adaptation in the transportation sector, developed by the Georgetown Climate Center as part of a cooperative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. The case studies include examples of how adaptation has been incorporated into decisionmaking at all stages of the transportation lifecycle: assessing vulnerability, planning, design, and operations and maintenance.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can also be sorted by date and title. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by climate impact, region, transportation mode or stage of decision-making, state, or jurisdictional focus.
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June 2011
In 2011, the City of Lewes, Delaware undertook a pilot project to develop a unified Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Action Plan, which considers the City’s vulnerability to climate change, particularly sea-level rise, and includes an evaluation of the vulnerability of roads and critical evacuation routes.
Related Organizations: Delaware Sea Grant , University of Delaware, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
Resource Category: Planning
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May 27, 2011
The Midwest Adaptation Peer Exchange Report summarizes the outcomes of two Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored peer-exchange events that focused on minimizing the impacts of climate change on transportation assets in the Midwest. Participants included Indiana MPOs and Midwestern state DOTs. The purpose of the peer exchanges was to identify and share tools that are available to local, regional, and state transportation managers to encourage them to prepare for and minimize climate impacts on transportation infrastructure.
Related Organizations: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
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May 16, 2011
This guidance document was developed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) pursuant to Executive Order S-13-08, issued by then Governor Schwarzenegger in November 2008. It provides guidance to Caltrans staff Project Development Teams on how to assess the vulnerability of transportation projects to sea-level rise (SLR) impacts and incorporate adaptation into the programming and design of vulnerable projects.
Related Organizations: California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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January 2012
The Climate Change Impact Assessment (Assessment) provides a preliminary analysis of the vulnerabilities posed by climate change to the surface transportation infrastructure system in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska region. The Assessment demonstrates a method that planners, engineers, and other agency decision makers can follow when assessing the impacts of climate change on surface transportation in their jurisdiction. The Assessment was conducted for the Region X Northwest Transportation Consortium for transportation policymakers and professionals in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Related Organizations: Region X Northwest Transportation Consortium , Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Washington State Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC) , Idaho Transportation Department, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Authors or Affiliated Users: John MacArthur, Philip W. Mote, Jason Ideker, Miguel Figliozzi, Ming Lee
Resource Category: Assessments
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December 2011
The City of Toronto utilized a risk assessment tool to help evaluate the risk of climate impacts on the City’s culverts. The PIEVC Protocol, developed by the Canadian Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC), is a step-by-step protocol in which risk scoring systems incorporate climate modeling data to outline explicit procedures to help engineers design a particular structure to withstand current and future climatic conditions. Although this study evaluated only three Toronto culverts, the results can be used to assist Toronto in incorporating climate change adaptation into the design, development and management of all of its culverts - and could be applied in other municipalities as well.
Related Organizations: City of Toronto; Ontario, Canada
Resource Category: Assessments
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November 2011
This state-level assessment provides information on New York's vulnerability to climate change and is specifically designed to assist in the development of adaptation strategies. The goal of the Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in New York State (ClimAID) is to provide decision-makers with progressive information on climate change effects on the state, and to facilitate adaptation planning. The ClimAID report reviews climate change impacts and adaptation options for eight sectors in New York including water resources, coastal zones, ecosystems, agriculture, energy, transportation, public health and telecommunications.
Related Organizations: Cornell University, Columbia University, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
Resource Category: Assessments
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October 31, 2011
This report was prepared for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to help them identify the vulnerabilities of the state’s transportation system as well as opportunities to adapt the system and mainstream adaptation into the transportation decision making process. The report is divided into five chapters: an introduction, a discussion of climate change and its intersection with transportation in New York State, a vulnerability and impact assessment, a discussion of adaptation strategies and best practices, recommendation for mainstreaming those strategies into NYSDOT operation, and a communications and technology transfer plan.
Related Organizations: New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) , Columbia University, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Resource Category: Solutions
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July 2011
This assessment was prepared by the staff of the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for New Castle County, Delaware and Cecil County, Maryland, to identify the vulnerabilities of the area’s transportation infrastructure to climate change. The body of the report is broken into five chapters: background, methodology, regional impacts, cluster (neighborhood level) profiles, and policy recommendations.
Related Organizations: Wilmington Area Planning Council
Resource Category: Assessments
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June 13, 2011
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) West Coast Climate Change Adaptation Peer Exchange gave transportation officials from western states an opportunity to learn more about climate impacts on transportation assets and plan for improved resilience. The participants in the exchange, California DOT (Caltrans), Oregon DOT (ODOT), and Washington State DOT (WSDOT), collaborated on strategies for assessing risks related to climate change, incorporating adaptation into asset management and operations, and communicating about the need for adaptation.
Related Organizations: Washington State Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) , San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) , ICF International
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
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March 23, 2011
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) in 2011 created Sustainable Infrastructure Guidelines to rate agency infrastructure projects using a point system and checklist that incorporates design evaluation based on climate change projections for temperature, precipitation, and flood elevation. The Guidelines require application of these climate change projections and evaluation of impacts in order to receive points for the “Site Assessment” phase of project design, which generally involves assessing existing conditions and using the information to identify best management practices (BMPs) for the project.
Related Organizations: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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