Identifying Surface Transportation Vulnerabilities and Risk Assessment Opportunities Under Climate Change

Published In

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Subjects

Global climate change, Transportation planning, Risk assessment, Geographic information systems

Abstract

Transportation departments are beginning to recognize that adaptation for climate change must become an integral part of their planning efforts. However, staff members frequently lack the adequate local data, training, and guidance needed to begin adaptation planning assessments. As a result, planning for adapting to climate change has remained generally abstract and lacks the specificity needed to identify potential system vulnerabilities, assess risk, and prioritize responses. This report outlines a geographic information system-based method with which transportation departments can assess vulnerabilities to climate change in their multimodal surface transportation systems. The city of Portland, Oregon, is used as an illustrative case study. The proposed method allows for preliminary vulnerability identification, prioritization, and impact assessment and can also be used as a basis for more advanced analysis and scenario testing. This research also identifies and describes data gaps and other barriers to climate change adaptation planning for surface transportation.

Description

Copyright, National Academy of Sciences. Posted with permission of the Transportation Research Board. None of this material may be presented to imply endorsement by TRB of a product, method, practice, or policy.

DOI

10.3141/2244-06

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20813

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS