01515542

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2459-03

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.

01551909

14-5506

English

pp 18–28

2014

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309295512

Print

Figures (4) ; Maps; Photos; References (21) ; Tables (3)

Asset management; Climate change; Financing; Infrastructure; Metropolitan planning organizations; Risk assessment; Safety; State departments of transportation; Weather conditions

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 3:55PM

• Accessibility of Low-Income Populations to Safe Zones During Localized Evacuations
• Cost Assessment of Highway Bridge Network Subjected to Extreme Seismic Events
• Effect of Phased Evacuations in Megaregion Highway Networks
• Efficient Negative Cycle–Canceling Algorithm for Finding the Optimal Traffic Routing for Network Evacuation with Nonuniform Threats
• Generic Incident Model for Investigating Traffic Incident Impacts on Evacuation Times in Large-Scale Emergencies
• Mathematical Modeling of Command-and-Control Strategies in Crowd Movement
• Mobility Benefits of Intermediate Crossovers on Contraflow Facilities During Hurricane Evacuation
• Modeling and Assessment of Crossing Elimination for No-Notice Evacuations
• Network Flow Solution Method for Optimal Evacuation Traffic Routing and Signal Control with Nonuniform Threat
• Planning Postdisaster Operations in a Highway Network: Network Design Model with Interdependencies
• Simulation Study of Evacuation Routes and Traffic Management Strategies in Short-Notice Emergency Evacuation
• Urban Ferries and Catastrophic Floods: Experiences and Lessons Learned in Brisbane, Australia, and New York City
• Use of Mobile Lidar Data to Assess Hurricane Damage and Visualize Community Vulnerability
• Use of Social Media Data to Explore Crisis Informatics: Study of 2013 Oklahoma Tornado