New FHWA Climate Change and Sustainability Resources Available

FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty (HEP) sent this bulletin at 11/12/2015 03:02 PM EST

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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has several new resources available on sustainability and climate change.

 

TechBrief: Climate Change Adaptation for Pavements 

This TechBrief from FHWA's Office of Infrastructure describes climate change impacts on pavement systems along with specific pavement adaptation strategies that can be implemented now and in the future.

 

FHWA Webinar Series: Advancing a Sustainable Highway System - Recordings Available

Learn about key transportation sustainability topics: access and affordability, linking asset management and planning, and sustainable pavements. View the webinar recordings.

 

Pooled Fund Initiative Creates Toolkit for Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Corridor Development 

Last year, the Oregon Department of Transportation initiated a pooled-fund study to assist state and local transportation agencies interested in promoting the use of alternative vehicle and fuel technologies at a state, regional, or corridor scale and provide tools, information, and knowledge to do so. The Deployment of Alternative Vehicle and Fuel Technologies initiative utilizes a series of workshops around the country to develop a web-based “toolkit” for state and local transportation agencies that will facilitate their deployment of alternative fuel vehicle and related technologies. The first workshop, “EV Infrastructure Corridor Development Workshop: Lessons Learned from the West Coast Experience,” took place in Portland, Oregon, on July 28, 2015. The toolkit provides resources and information to support plug-in electric vehicle (EV) adoption through EV charging infrastructure development along travel corridors. The EV Infrastructure Corridor Development Toolkit is comprised of two components: Resource Library and Workshop Materials. Additional toolkits will be developed for future workshops conducted for this initiative.

 

Transportation Engineering Approaches to Climate Resiliency (TEACR) Gaps Report Posted

This interim report reviews gaps in information and practice related to integrating climate change into transportation engineering and recommends a select set of gaps for further investigation in the remainder of the ongoing project.

 

Climate Change Resiliency Conference Presentations Available

Slide presentations and session recordings are available online for the First International Conference on Surface Transportation System Resilience to Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events. Organized by the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the conference was held on September 16-18, 2015, in Washington, DC. It provided transportation professionals with information on emerging best practices and state-of-the-art-research results on how to adapt surface transportation networks to the potential impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Even if you did not register to participate in the conference you can still register online and view the recordings. Registration is free for Federal, State, Tribal, and Local Employees. The recordings are available through September 2016. Many of the presentation slides are also available within the conference program on the conference webpage. Click on the title of the individual presentation to view the slides.

Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) ROADAPT Reports Available

CEDR recently posted the final products of the ROADAPT project, “Roads for today, adapted for tomorrow.” A joint research effort supported by the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Norway, the primary objective of ROADAPT was to develop a preliminary risk assessment method to identify vulnerable locations in the transportation network, understand the probabilities and consequences that climate change events could have on these locations, and provide options for adaptation actions. The outcome of ROADAPT was guidelines on items such as the use of climate change projections; the application of a QuickScan on climate change risks for roads; how to perform a detailed vulnerability assessment and more.

FTA Climate Change Adaptation Assessment Pilot Project Case Studies

Project summaries of three of the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Climate Change Adaptation Assessment Pilot Projects were posted on FHWA’s Climate Change Adaptation Case Studies website. The summaries detail efforts by Chicago Transit Authority, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to advance the state of practice for adapting transit systems to the impacts of climate change.

Volpe Center Report Details Available Resources and Gaps for Adaptation Support

Climate Change Adaptation Support for Transportation Practitioners, by the USDOT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, provides an overview of resources on climate change adaptation available to transportation agencies, discusses resource gaps identified through conversations with transportation practitioners and report reviews, and lays out a proposal for an “expert system” that would help guide users through the myriad of available resources on climate change adaptation assessment to find those most applicable to their specific project goals and needs.

 

Learn more about sustainability, climate change, and transportation at:

https://www.sustainablehighways.org/

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/climate_change/

 

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