1. Transportation Engineering Approaches to Climate Resilience (TEACR)
Rob Hyman, FHWA
Good morning. I’m going to talk about why it’s important to think about climate changes in design, and FHWA’s approach to building examples and guides on how you might go about this.
The handout folder in front of you includes information on studies and resources we’re involved in. I’m going to refer to a few of the projects and resources that are highlighted inside.

2. Lessons Learned Workshop
TEACR Project
Transportation Engineering Approaches to Climate Resilience
Objective: Develop a state of practice set of approaches for using climate projections in engineering analyses for project development and scoping Performed by: ICF, PB, and SCE
Gap Analysis
Gap Analysis Workshop
Case Studies
Lessons Learned Workshop
Synthesis Report
Objectives:
Standardize process for translating scientific climate projections into information applicable to project-level specifications and design
Develop a state of the practice set of solutions and methodologies that engineers can use in developing transportation infrastructure
Key Features:
Stakeholder workshop to identify key gaps in current knowledge for addressing climate change at the project level
8 engineering + 4 economics case studies
Development of synthesis report for transportation stakeholders summarizing best practices and lessons learned from case studies and other recent efforts
Anticipated Completion Date:
January 2017
Current Status:
Case studies nearing completion
Beginning development of synthesis document

3. Gaps Identified Working with future climate projections
Choosing appropriate scenarios given the uncertainties
Using 24-hour precipitation data constructively
Assessing future soil moisture conditions given changes in temperature and precipitation
How to incorporating climate change into analyses that don’t readily allow for it (e.g. regression equations)
Engineering solutions for adaptation
Developing approaches at varying levels of effort
Looking at systems of assets
Economic assessment
Determining cost-effectiveness given uncertainty
Costs/benefits of adaptive strategies

4. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

5. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

6. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

7. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

8. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

9. Case Study Analyses - Basic Steps
Adaptation Decision-making Assessment Process (ADAP)
Understand Site Context
Document Facility
Identify Climate Stressors
Develop Climate Scenarios
Assess Performance of the Facility
Develop Adaptation Options
Assess Performance of Adaptation Options
Conduct Economic Analysis
Additional Considerations
Select a Course of Action
Develop Facility Management Plan
Key way this differs from a normal process is in Step 3&4…and then how you use that new information in Steps 5, 6, and 7.

10. Engineering-Focused Case Studies From Multiple Projects
So together, this adds up to a whole range of different assets around the country, with a pretty wide set of issues (not all hydraulic)
We’re looking at a whole range of different assets around the country. We’ve been doing these assessments under various research projects -such as the one I mentioned earlier-for several years as part of a broad attempt to better understand the impact of climate change on the design process. The dots on this map don’t include all of the work we’ve done in the resilience area, but show many of the studies that are focused on the engineering design or resilience analysis process.
Gulf Coast 2 Study
Adaptation Pilots
Post-Sandy Resiliency Study
TEACR

11. TEACR Assessments Assessments: I-10 Bridge and wave action (AL)
Pavement and permafrost thaw (AK)
Living shoreline and sea level rise (NY)
Pavement overwashing (FL)
Pavement and drought (TX)
Precipitation and slope stability (VA)
Forest fire and debris loading (CO)
Pavement and freeze-thaw (ME)
The four boldfaced studies are the ones with a hydrologic focus – and not coincidentally are being presented in the two sessions that follow this one – Justin Lennon of PB will be talking about the Colorado forest fire and debris loading study in the session immediately following, and then Scott Douglas of South Coast Engineers will be talking about the three coastal studies in today’s final session.

12. Gulf Coast 2 Project (Mobile, AL)
Climate changes examined:
Temperature and precipitation statistically downscaled from GCMs
Relative sea level rise scenarios based on range of recent global SLR scenarios plus local subsidence
Storm surge modeling looked at range of storm intensities and included wave modeling
Phase 1 Study Area
Phase 2 Study Area
Phase 1 – Provides an overview of climate change impacts on transportation infrastructure in central Gulf Coast, Houston to Mobile (completed 2008).
The Phase 2 study is ongoing, and is focused on Mobile, AL. The first two tasks have been completed, and focused on developing information that will be used in the vulnerability assessment:
A list of the key infrastructure in the region, for each mode (Task 1)
Projections of climate change information for temperature, precipitation, sea level rise and storm impacts (Task 2)
Information on the sensitivity of roads, bridges, port facilities, etc. to weather and climate impacts (Task 2)
Tasks 3 and 4 are underway now.
Gulf Coast 2 project is an in-depth vulnerability assessment of transportation system in Mobile, AL
Initial vulnerability assessment recently completed
Beginning detailed engineering analysis of select assets
Developing tools that can be used by MPOs and DOTs around the country

13. Adaptation Pilots
WSDOT
WSDOT
Oregon DOT
NYSDOT
Michigan DOT
Maine DOT
MnDOT
MassDOT
CalTrans, D1
CT DOT
Iowa DOT
NJTPA
MTC
MTC
MD SHA
VDOT
Arizona DOT
TNDOT AK
This map shows the specific study locations, with the recent pilots shown in blue and five from 2010 and 2011 in orange.
Vulnerability and/or adaptation
Broad geographic coverage and range of impacts
Furthering the state of practice in resilience to climate change
NCTCOG
Pilot
Pilot
AKDOT&PF/FLMA
CAMPO
Hillsborough MPO
South Florida MPOs
Oahu MPO HI

14. Post-Hurricane Sandy Resiliency Study
Partners
FHWA , FTA
NY, NJ, and CT DOTs
Metro area MPOs: NYMTC, NJTPA, SWRPA, and GBVMPO
MTA, Port Authority
Primary tasks
Assessment of damages, lessons learned, gaps in climate analysis
Analysis of adaptation options for 10 transportation assets (project level)
Region-wide multimodal vulnerability assessment (systems level)
Project Study Area
“Superstorm Sandy” project
Goal is to make the NY/NJ/CT transportation network more resilient to extreme weather and climate change as destroyed and damaged assets are rebuilt or retrofitted.
Focus on both assessing vulnerability and identifying adaptations; both at system level and at an engineering level for a subset of assets.

15. Bringing It All Together: Synthesis Document
Research/Guidance
Gulf Coast 2 Study
Engineering-focused Pilots
Hurricane Sandy Project
Engineering Assessments Study
Guidance
(HEC-25 & 17)
So- bringing it all together… We’re going to capture what we’ve learned into a synthesis report, Engineering Approaches for Climate and Extreme Weather Resilience. Which we plan to release next year.
This will be a synthesis that will point back to those individual case studies for those who want more detailed information. It won’t be guidance like the HECs, rather it will discuss sample methodologies and approaches. Our goal here today is
Synthesis of Approaches for Incorporating Climate Change into Project Development
(2017)
TEACR Synthesis Document

16. Synthesis Document: Main Topic Areas
Climate Stressors, Climate Scenarios, and Data
Assessing Performance of Facility and Adaptation Options
Pavements
Geotech
Slopes
Subgrade
Hydraulics
Riverine Hydraulics
Coastal Hydraulics/Coastal Engineering
Structural and Mechanical
Economic Analysis
Hydraulics –
Riverine - Culverts, bridges
Coastal - Bridges and approaches, other roadway alignment

17. Cross-Cutting Lessons Learned
Performance in past events can be useful in assessing future resilience
Suggest need for collecting data on incidents
Decision scaling – should match level of effort in analysis to the scale/importance/lifespan of asset
Cost-effective adaptation solutions can be found:
Phased adaptation
Opportunistic adaptation
Considering solutions from a system-level asset management perspective rather than asset-by-asset
Past events – information on past problems is extremely helpful in understanding how future precipitation and flows are really going to impact a structure, but it is awfully hard to find systematic records of for instance under what conditions a given location flooded or a culvert overtopped, or
Decision scaling – for instance, for less critical or less expensive assets, or those with a short lifespan, you might simplify the analysis by simply updating to the most recent historical climate data rather than working with projections
Phased/opportunistic adaptation - Hopefully we aren’t creating the impression that these analyses are suggesting we should rip out existing infrastructure and replace it with something hardier. But Clearly

18. Thank You Schedule: More information: Case Studies Complete: Fall 2016
Synthesis Report Complete: Spring 2017
More information:
fhwa.dot.gov/environment/climate_change/ adaptation/ongoing_and_current_research/teacr/