Research efforts in the past decade have produced a wealth of knowledge about the likely impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure—effects witnessed to date as well as those anticipated in coming decades—the effects of which frequently conflict in both magnitude and scope. This research summarizes the findings of the surface transportation climate change literature and explores the efforts under way in the transportation planning realm with respect to adaptive preparations of transportation infrastructure for the effects of climate change. This research focuses on transportation facilities and operations in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. This report builds on recent research on governmental climate change planning efforts to explore how agencies in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington are preparing for climate change in their climate action plans, to investigate how the goals and recommendations of those plans are reflected in long-range transportation planning documents, and to identify key resources and strategies agencies may adopt to ensure that the anticipated impacts of climate change on transportation are addressed in transportation planning documents.
Storm-Related Closures of I-5 and I-90: Freight Transportation Economic Impact Assessment Report. Final Research Report WA-RD 708.1. Washington State Department of Transportation Freight Systems Division, Olympia, 2008.
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WheelerS.State and Municipal Climate Change Plans: The First Generation. Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 74, No. 4, 2008, pp. 481–496.
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McNeilS.Special Report 299: Reducing Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Consumption: A Research Agenda.Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2009. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/SR299Adaptation.pdf.
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LindquistE.Climate Change and Adaptive Strategies in Sub-national Transportation Planning Agencies in the United States. Presented at 2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change “Earth System Governance: Theories and Strategies for Sustainability,” Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2007. http://www.2007amsterdamconference.org/Downloads/AC2007_Lindquist.pdf.
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Special Report 290: Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation.Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2008.
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ChristensenJ. H., HewitsonB., BusuiocA., ChenA., GaoX., HeldI., JonesR., KolliR. K., KwonW.-T., LapriseR., Magaña RuedaV., MearnsL., MenéndezC. G., RäisänenJ., RinkeA., SarrA., and WhettonP.2007: Regional Climate Projections. In Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (SolomonS., QinD., ManningM., ChenZ., MarquisM., AverytK. B., TignorM., and MillerH. L., eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2007, pp. 852–940. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-chapter11.pdf.
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MoteP., and SalathéE.Future Climate in the Pacific Northwest, Chapter 1 in the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment: Evaluating Washington's Future in a Changing Climate.University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, Seattle, 2009. http://cses.washington.edu/db/pdf/wacciaexecsummary638.pdf.
Climate Change—2008 Climate Change Interim Report: Leading the Way on Climate Change: The Challenge of Our Time.Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia, 2008. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/interimreport.htm.
ChangH., LafrenzM., FigliozziM., PlatmanD., and PedersonC.Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Flood-Induced Travel Disruptions: A Case Study of Portland, Oregon, USA.Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 100, No. 4, 2010, pp. 1–14.
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FigliozziM., MelgozaR., RuelasD., ChangH., LafrenzM., PlatmanD., and PedersonC.Quantifying and Analyzing the Costs of Climate Change on Local Transportation Infrastructure: A Case Study from Portland, Oregon. Presented at 89th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2010.
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Summary Report: Peer Workshop on Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts.FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2008.
