Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Pilots

PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®

2013-2014 Pilot Program

FHWA is soliciting proposals from State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs), and Tribes to partner with us in piloting approaches to conduct climate change and extreme weather vulnerability assessments of transportation infrastructure and to analyze options for adapting and improving resiliency. This pilot program is being jointly sponsored by the FHWA Office of Environment, Planning and Realty, and the Office of Infrastructure.

2010-2011 Pilot Program

This project funded DOTs and MPOs to pilot a Conceptual Model (HTML and PDF 249 KB) to use in conducting vulnerability and risk assessments of infrastructure to the projected impacts of global climate change. The purpose of the pilots was twofold; 1) to assist State DOTs and MPOs more quickly advance existing adaptation assessment activities and 2) to assist FHWA in "test-driving" the model. Based on the feedback received through the pilots, FHWA is revising the model for national application. The following agencies were selected to pilot the model:

Metropolitan Transportation Commission - San Francisco Bay;
New Jersey DOT/North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority - Coastal and Central New Jersey;
- Pilot project information
Virginia DOT - Hampton Roads;
- Pilot project information
Washington State DOT - State of Washington;
- Sustainability Program
- Pilot project information
Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization - Island of Oahu.
- Pilot project information
- Workshop presentations

The pilots were completed in November 2011. They are intended to be a first step towards creating a more robust and consistent way of addressing vulnerability and risk to climate change in the decision making of transportation agencies. This pilot program was jointly sponsored by the FHWA Office of Environment, Planning and Realty, and the Office of Infrastructure. If you have any questions regarding the project, please contact Becky Lupes at (202) 366-7808 or Rebecca.Lupes@dot.gov. Reporters with questions about this program should call FHWA's Office of Public Affairs at 202-366-0660.

Supporting Information

Assessing Criticality in Transportation Adaptation Planning. This memo discusses approaches for narrowing the universe of transportation assets to study in a climate change vulnerability and risk assessment by assessing their "criticality" and otherwise narrowing study scope. It identifies common challenges, and draws on examples from the FHWA Adaptation Conceptual Model Pilots and the ongoing USDOT Gulf Coast Phase 2 study. Also available as Adobe PDF for printing. cta092111.pdf (113 KB)
The Use of Climate Information in Vulnerability Assessments (January 2011) This memorandum focuses on the use of climate information when performing a vulnerability assessment. The memorandum describes several sources of precipitation and temperature information, and provides some recommendations on how this information can be used by transportation planners as they consider their climate-related risks. The memorandum has an Appendix which outlines some of the methods employed by pilots to estimate the impacts of sea-level rise. (PDF 400 KB)
Vulnerability Assessment Pilots Webinars. FHWA held two webinars presenting the results of the pilot program. The webinars were recorded, and are available here.
Vulnerability Assessment Pilots Memo. This is the initial memorandum and supporting documentation requesting pilot applications.