Adaptation Methods to Mitigate Impact of Climate Change on Texas Pavements

Although incorporating the influence of climate change on pavements by accounting for uncertain climate events in planning and design is a difficult and challenging task, it is important for decision makers to understand the consequences of the climate change on pavement service life because pavement structures are continuously exposed to weather. Traditionally, the historical weather data are used for estimating service life of pavements; however, the historical data do not take into account change in climate. On the other hand, the future climate models are global and predictions do not necessarily agree with each other. Therefore, the major focus of this study was to analyze the climate data simulations and their influence on pavement structure and develop adaptation strategies against climate change by accounting for uncertainty associated with transference from global to regional models. To achieve the objective of this study, climate prediction models from North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) databases were used. The influence of climate change on pavement was analyzed for a pavement section in Fort Worth, TX using Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) Design software. All the eleven regional models showed different climate prediction and variations in performance of the pavement section. The distresses in the pavement sections increase for the future climate as compared to the historical weather data (Pavement ME Climate) indicating premature failure of the pavement structure. In the end, the mitigation strategies were evaluated to identify their influence on service lives.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD30 Standing Committee on General and Emerging Pavement Design.
• Authors:
  • Sharma, Megha
  • Inti, Sundeep
  • Tandon, Vivek
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Climate change; Climate change adaptation; Databases; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Pavements; Service life; Simulation; Weather forecasting
• Identifier Terms: North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP)
• Geographic Terms: Fort Worth (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661916
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-06034
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 6 2018 4:22PM