Climate Change Overview: FHWA Activities, Lessons Learned and Emerging Guidelines

Federal agencies are paying more attention to climate change resiliency in part as a result of recent extreme weather events and the President’s Climate Action Plan announced last summer, Executive Order 13653 (Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change) released last November and the 2015 federal budget proposal for a $1 billion climate resiliency fund. Many agencies are moving towards more specific actions and developing guidance/policy with respect to climate adaptation and resiliency. MAP-21 mentions funding of a national highway performance program for purposes of protection of bridges on the National Highway System against “extreme events.” In an effort to develop well-reasoned and scientifically grounded guidance, FHWA has initiated multiple studies to examine how the climate may be changing, the potential for impacts to highway infrastructure (particularly drainage infrastructure) and how DOTs and MPOs can plan for and adapt their highway assets to projected changes. This presentation will provide an overview of these activities/studies including work with the National Weather Service on identifying precipitation trends in events of significance to hydraulics designers, strategies for assessing extreme events in the coastal highway environment (HEC-25), the post-Sandy vulnerability assessment and adaptation analysis, the 19 climate resilience pilots, and climate resilience engineering analysis case studies including those examined in FHWA’s Gulf Coast 2 study in Mobile, AL. Various State DOT hydraulic engineers have been involved in many of these projects. Recently developed, web-based climate data and vulnerability tools and the FHWA climate vulnerability assessment framework will also be described. The emphasis of the presentation will be on lessons learned as engineers struggle with issues of scenario uncertainty, challenges to traditional hydraulic design practices and standards, interpreting limited and coarse climate projection data, and how best to communicate and approach adaptation strategies with an aim towards integration of climate adaptation into a risk-based asset management plan. FHWA’s overall strategy for climate resiliency will be discussed including future directions