Adapting to Climate Change: Another Challenge for the Transportation Community

The transportation planners, designers, and operators of this nation’s transportation systems face many daunting concerns, not the least of which is funding to maintain and improve the country’s infrastructure and competitiveness. To these concerns is now added climate change or global warming. This paper does not address the science of climate change or the issue of mitigation to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Rather it accepts the current state of knowledge on global warming and focuses on adaptation. How does the transportation community develop solutions and approaches that will minimize or eliminate the impact of climate change? To many, this question is a paramount one as the nation builds, rebuilds, operates, and maintains its transportation infrastructure. Even if there are major strides in the mitigation of GHG emissions, the world very likely will be facing a significantly altered climate in coming decades with impacts that test our current ability to forecast accurately. Nonetheless, one can develop scenarios of probable impacts and how the United States might adapt to conditions that could occur 25 to 50 years hence. While most of these scenarios deal with transportation, a few others are included to demonstrate the breadth of the impacts.

• Record URL:
  • https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/22876
• 
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00978515
• Authors:
  • Schwartz Jr, Henry G
• Publication Date: 2011-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 2-9
• Monograph Title: Adapting Transportation to the Impacts of Climate Change: State of the Practice 2011
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Circular
  • Issue Number: E-C152
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0097-8515

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Climate change; Forecasting; Global warming; Impacts; Transportation
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General); I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01349630
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 11 2011 4:20PM