National Academies Press: OpenBook

Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change (2016)

Chapter: Participant Comments

« Previous: Sponsor Comments
Page 32
Suggested Citation:"Participant Comments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24648.
×
Page 32
Page 33
Suggested Citation:"Participant Comments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24648.
×
Page 33
Page 34
Suggested Citation:"Participant Comments." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24648.
×
Page 34

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

32 t r a n s p o r t a t i o n r e s i l i e n c e symposium at the Executive Committee mid-year meet- ing next week. Pedersen also noted that the symposium proceed- ings, authored by Katie Turnbull under contract to the EU, will be published by TRB. The proceedings must follow the strict guidelines of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Because the symposium was not set up under the Academies Federal Advisory Committee Act, he reported that the proceed- ings cannot include formal recommendations. Observa- tions on research gaps and suggestions on research topics are appropriate, however. Pedersen announced that a special session on the sym- posium will be scheduled for the TRB Annual Meeting, January 8–12, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Speakers and participants from the symposium will be included in the session. In addition, he suggested that many of the topics discussed at the symposium will be featured in other ses- sions. He invited all the symposium participants to attend the 2017 Annual Meeting. He noted that Katie Turnbull has volunteered to write an article on the symposium for TR News, the monthly publication that is distributed to approximately 10,000 transportation professionals. Pedersen discussed the new TRB section on resilience chaired by Thomas Wakeman of the Stevens Institute of Technology. The section was established to enhance coor- dination among committees focusing on resilience and to increase the visibility of the topic within TRB. He sug- gested that the symposium results will be used by the sec- tion and committees across TRB. Some of the topics may be appropriate for follow-up workshops and conferences. Pedersen suggested that one of the most important follow-up activities will be developing problem state- ments from the research topics identified in the break- out groups. The problem statements can be submitted to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), the Transit Cooperative Research Program, and the Aviation Cooperative Research Program, which are all managed by TRB. Given limited resources, he said that identifying the most important research top- ics would be beneficial. He noted that John Halikowski, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, serves as the chair of the NCHRP Oversight Commit- tee. Halikowski is interested in TRB and the NCHRP program participating in twinning projects. PartiCiPant Comments Vicki Arroyo, Thomas Wakeman, Rachel Burbidge, Thomas Bles, Robert Lempert, and Evangelos Mitsakis In this session, three symposium participants from Europe and three from the United States shared their views on the topics discussed in the breakout sessions and potential trans-Atlantic research topics. Vicki Arroyo described the role and activities of the Georgetown University Climate Center. She noted that the center convenes activities and serves as resource to states on climate and energy issues. The center brings together academics and policy makers to improve cli- mate policy. Further, it informs the development of legis- lation, regulation, transportation policy, and adaptation policy. Arroyo noted that the center has helped identify legal and policy barriers to climate change adaptation strategies. She commented that the center made 100 recommendations to the President’s Task Force on Pre- paredness and Resilience that informed their report. The center maintains an adaptation clearinghouse website that hosts more than 1,000 resources on adaptation. The clearinghouse helps decision makers and others to quickly identify relevant resources. She suggested that it can also serve as a resource for symposium participants. Arroyo highlighted the state tracking tool available on the website, which presents information on activities at the state level. For example, information is available on 15 state-led adaptation plans, draft plans in other states, and regional and municipal plans. She reviewed other resources available on the center’s website. These resources include 175 case studies developed by center personnel highlighting changes in transportation systems made with climate impacts in mind. The Federal High- way Administration (FHWA) Climate Change Adapta- tion and Resilience Case Study Series, which highlights a range of state and local examples, is also available through a link on the website. Arroyo described the experience in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina, noting that her family lost homes in the flooding. She noted that Katrina pointed out the importance of improving communication with people who need support in evacuating. One improvement has been the placement of 14-foot “evacuteer” sculptures to identify places where people can get rides out of town before a storm event. She described the experience of her father during the evacuation from Hurricane Ivan the year before Katrina. She noted that he was turned away from seeking treatment just prior to the storm as hospitals were going into lockdown mode and not keeping scheduled appointments. The evacuation was very stressful, as the contraflow allowing traffic to use highway lanes differ- ently did not go well. After long delays, her father went from a hotel to the hospital where he died that evening. Arroyo commented that what many people took away from stories like her father’s and the difficulties with Hurricane Ivan was that it was safer to stay home when Katrina hit the next year, when, of course, that was not the case, as 80% of the city flooded. She also noted

33c l o s i n g s e s s i o n a n d f i n a l r e m a r k s that some people did not evacuate because they did not want to leave their pets, which may be their only com- panion. In response to this situation, Congress passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, or PETS Act, which allows pets to accompany individu- als in evacuations. She noted that it is important to learn from previous experiences and share case studies, as noted by many participants at the symposium. Arroyo provided the following links to websites for symposium participants to obtain further information: • One hundred transportation adaptation case stud- ies are available at http://www.georgetownclimate.org/ adaptation/clearinghouse (select “Transportation”). • Case studies on FHWA’s website are available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/climate_change/ adaptation/case_studies/series.cfm. Thomas Wakeman described his background and expe- rience in examining the impact of extreme weather events on the transportation system, primarily seaports and freight facilities. He highlighted his national and international work in port and intermodal facility devel- opment and operation. He also discussed his current role at Stevens Institute of Technology and his involvement in TRB committees focusing on resiliency. Wakeman discussed working in Iraq to reopen the country’s seaports and intermodal facilities after Opera- tion Iraqi Freedom, which enhanced his understanding and appreciation of the global intermodal transporta- tion system and the international economy. His studies of lessons learned following Superstorm Sandy provided a better understanding of the impact of extreme weather events on the regional freight transportation system and the local economy. He noted that the water-side response to Superstorm Sandy was well organized by the U.S. Coast Guard. He suggested that the land-side response was more difficult due to the lack of adequate coordination among private-sector operators and mul- tiple agencies at the federal, state, regional, and local lev- els. In some cases, these parties had not worked together before and had not developed a high level of collabora- tion. He noted the importance of including social sci- entists with civil engineers in developing transportation resiliency plans and actions to enhance activities before, during, and after extreme weather events. He suggested that although concrete and rebar may fail, people are resilient, and supportive communities are an important part of the recovery process from disruptive events. In discussing his current university role, Wakeman noted the need to include consideration of climate change and extreme weather events in civil engineering curricula. He also outlined the need to develop new tools and methods for analyzing risks, assessing infrastructure vulnerability, and developing adaptation strategies. Wakeman highlighted his role as the chair of the new resilience section of TRB committees. He noted that the symposium results will be of use to the committees in the resilience section and to other committees within TRB in developing research problem statements and organizing annual meeting sessions, workshops, and other activities. Rachel Burbidge thanked the symposium organizers for inviting representatives from the aviation sector. She noted that the presentations and discussions were very informative. She described the role of Eurocontrol (the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation) and possible impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on aviation. Burbidge noted that Eurocontrol is an intergovern- mental organization with 41 member states. All EU member states are currently members. Established in 1960, Eurocontrol’s responsibilities are to achieve safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly air traffic opera- tions throughout the European region. She described the activities of Eurocontrol, which include air traffic flow and capacity management, safety management, control- ler training, and environmental sustainability. Burbidge reported that Eurocontrol first identified the impacts of climate change as a potential risk for the avia- tion sector in 2008 and since then has been working to clarify the impacts and identify adaptation measures. She stressed the interconnectivity of the aviation sector and noted that disruptions in one area due to weather events cause ripple effects throughout the entire system. Burbidge noted that extreme weather events can sig- nificantly disrupt the operation of airports as aircraft operations may be restricted, meaning that flights may be cancelled or delayed. Access to and from an airport may also be affected. She commented that the impact to the aviation network can stretch beyond an individual airport. Delays and cancellations in one part of the net- work influence flight schedules, aircraft availability, and crew schedules throughout the system. Burbidge suggested that continuing to share informa- tion among transport sector organizations and agencies on adaptation planning, response, and recovery activi- ties would be beneficial. She also noted the importance of ongoing interaction with the scientific community to obtain updated information on climate conditions and possible impacts on the transport system. Thomas Bles highlighted a few of the topics addressed in the symposium presentations and breakout groups. He noted that some of these topics, including using a risk- based approach and considering the total transportation system, confirmed previous research and experience. He also provided examples from projects conducted for the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands.

34 t r a n s p o r t a t i o n r e s i l i e n c e Bles suggested that risk-based assessments provide a good method for identifying the potential for and pos- sible consequences of extreme weather events, as well as the vulnerability of critical assets. The importance of focusing on the total transportation system, including all modes and user groups, as well as the supporting infra- structure, was also reinforced by speakers and discus- sions in the breakout sessions. Bles presented an example from the Port of Rotter- dam illustrating the cascading effects and interactions among modes, electricity, communication services, data centers, and other infrastructure elements. He suggested that obtaining a better understanding of the relation- ships between the different modes and components would be beneficial. Bles also presented an example of a risk matrix from a Port of Rotterdam workshop illus- trating the likelihood of different extreme weather events and their potential consequences. He stressed the need to examine different scenarios, especially those with a combination of high likelihood of occurring and severe consequences. Bles discussed a few of the other topics covered in the breakout groups. He noted that the discussion of black swans (extreme, rarely identifiable, events) supported the need to examine a wide range of scenarios. He reviewed the discussions on the types and extent of data needed to analyze the impacts of different scenarios on the trans- port system. Climate data, asset data, and user data were all identified as important; however, first insight can also be gained by using the experience and expertise of rel- evant stakeholders without having the appropriate data. In other words, he suggested that lack of data should not be used as an excuse to stop an assessment. Other top- ics of interest summarized by Bles included communicat- ing with the public and using remote sensing to support monitoring and evaluation efforts. He presented exam- ples of adaptation pathways with different scenarios and techniques to communicate possible risks to the public. Robert Lempert discussed research focusing on deep uncertainty and its relationship to transportation resil- ience. He noted Alfred Chandler’s book The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, which offers a useful perspective on deep uncertainty and the associated difficulties with addressing transportation resilience. Lempert noted that a key theme of Chandler’s work was that the development of the railroad in the 19th cen- tury was linked to the emergence of a new social orga- nization, the managerial corporation. He suggested that this theme was relevant to transportation resilience in the 21st century for several reasons. First, it highlights that technology is not only the physical artifact, but is also the socioeconomic system in which the artifacts are embedded. He suggested that this system view will likely prove important to ensuring resilience, especially to pathways that involve significant transformation of transportation systems. Second, among the attributes of managerial organizations is a preference for long-term stability. Thus, a preference for stationarity and predict- ability is built into these systems, even though the world is increasingly nonstationary and difficult to predict. Third, these organizations have traditionally been orga- nized as hierarchies that divide the system into silos that are largely managed independently. Lempert highlighted attributes of the current trans- portation system, which is more than just technology and engineering and which operates in silos of differ- ent agencies, modes, and governmental levels. Research priorities for resilience could thus usefully focus on how to best identify and implement systemic, flexible, and robust plans in the transportation sector. He noted that the analytic means for studying such plans are becom- ing increasingly available. Important research priorities might include conducting pilots and demonstration proj- ects to identify promising solutions; studying means to align incentives among government agencies and the pri- vate sector toward actions and investments that promote resilience; developing methods for valuing resilience to facilitate trade-offs among investments in different com- ponents of the system, as well as to help answer the ques- tion of how much to pay for flexibility; improving systems models to help evaluate the potential consequences of alternative policies under conditions of uncertainty; and conducting rigorous evaluation of policies to improve the understanding of what is and is not working. Evangelos Mitsakis described his research interests in transport, including better understanding the impacts of climate change on the transport system and travel- ers’ behavior. He noted that the symposium speakers highlighted the changes that are occurring as a result of climate change. He commented that public agency par- ticipants from the United States were well versed in some of these impacts and the responses that had been taken to date. He noted that there was a gap between climate change science and applying that science to practical transport applications. Mitsakis discussed how the fol- lowing 14 research topics would be useful projects for future research: • Developing a commonly agreed-on and accepted definition of resilience as well as standardized methods to measure resilience (e.g., key performance indicators); • Quantifying the impacts of climate change on transport systems and transport networks to ensure reli- ability and to support transferability of results; • Assessing cross-modal substitutability of transport systems to efficiently provide transportation services during disruptions;

Next: Closing Comments from Sponsors »
Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Transportation Resilience: Adaptation to Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events summarizes a symposium held June 16–17, 2016 in Brussels, Belgium. The fourth annual symposium promotes common understanding, efficiencies, and trans-Atlantic cooperation within the international transportation research community while accelerating transport-sector innovation in the European Union (EU) and the United States.

The two-day, invitation-only symposium brought together high-level experts to share their views on disruptions to the transportation system resulting from climate change and extreme weather events. With the goal of fostering trans-Atlantic collaboration in research and deployment, symposium participants discussed the technical, financial, and policy challenges to better plan, design, and operate the transportation network before, during, and after extreme and/or long-term climate events.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!