Incorporating The Costs And Benefits Of Adaptation Measures In Preparation For Extreme Weather Events And Climate Change

Extreme weather events and a changing climate increasingly boost costs to transportation agencies and to the traveling public. While Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are taking into account changing climate and extreme weather when making infrastructure decisions, they typically are not using a formal set of tools or cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) to address climate resilience because they may be too time-consuming and expensive to conduct routinely. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 938: Incorporating the Costs and Benefits of Adaptation Measures in Preparation for Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change--Guidebook was developed to try to fill the gaps identified by DOTs. It is intended to provide a consolidated resource for transportation practitioners to be able to more readily consider CBAs as a tool in their investment-decision making processes when considering different climate and extreme weather adaptation alternatives. This report has additional resources, including a web-only document NCHRP Web-Only Document 271: Guidelines to Incorporate the Costs andBenefits of Adaptation Measures in Preparation for Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change, a Power Point presentation that describes the research and the results, a spreadsheet tool that provides an approximate test to see if it would be cost-effective to upgrade assets to the future conditions posed by climate change, and a spreadsheet tool that uses existing conditions without climate change only to calculate the new return period for future conditions with climate change.

Extreme weather events and a changing climate increasingly boost costs to transportation agencies and to the traveling public. While Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are taking into account changing climate and extreme weather when making infrastructure decisions, they typically are not using a formal set of tools or cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) to address climate resilience because they may be too time-consuming and expensive to conduct routinely. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 938: Incorporating the Costs and Benefits of Adaptation Measures in Preparation for Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change—Guidebook was developed to try to fill the gaps identified by DOTs. It is intended to provide a consolidated resource for transportation practitioners to be able to more readily consider CBAs as a tool in their investment-decision making processes when considering different climate and extreme weather adaptation alternatives. This report has additional resources, including a web-only document NCHRP Web-Only Document 271: Guidelines to Incorporate the Costs andBenefits of Adaptation Measures in Preparation for Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change, a Power Point presentation that describes the research and the results, a spreadsheet tool that provides an approximate test to see if it would be cost-effective to upgrade assets to the future conditions posed by climate change, and a spreadsheet tool that uses existing conditions without climate change only to calculate the new return period for future conditions with climate change.

Adapting the Built Environment for Climate Change: Design Principles for Climate Emergencies analyzes several scenarios and proposes various adaptation strategies for climate emergencies (heat waves, wildfires, floods, and storms). Divided into three themes, the book offers an organized vision of a complex and multi-factor challenge. It covers climatic resilience and building refurbishment, implications for service life prediction and maintainability, and climate adaptation in the maintenance and management of buildings. Sections cover infrastructure materials, climate emergency adaptation and building adaptation to heat waves, wildfires, floods and storms. The book will be an essential reference resource for civil and structural engineers, architects, planners, designers and other professionals who have an interest in the adaptation of the built environment against climate change. Presents technical solutions for adaptation of the built environment against climate change Features multiple authors spanning both engineering and architectural disciplines Proposes a systematic approach to implement low carbon solutions and build capacity to make successful transitions to a resilient city

The volume explains how risk and decision-making analytics can be applied to the wicked problem of protecting infrastructure and society from extreme events. There is increasing research that takes into account the risks associated with the timing and severity of extreme events in engineering to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resiliency of infrastructure. "Engineering for extremes" is defined as measures taken to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resiliency of built infrastructure to climate change, hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes, heat waves, fires, and malevolent and abnormal events that include terrorism, gas explosions, vehicle impact and vehicle overload. The book introduces the key concepts needed to assess the economic and social well-being risks, costs and benefits of infrastructure to extreme events. This includes hazard modelling (likelihood and severity), infrastructure vulnerability, resilience or exposure (likelihood and extent of damage), social and economic loss models, risk reduction from protective measures, and decision theory (cost-benefit and utility analyses). Case studies authored by experts from around the world describe the practical aspects of risk assessment when deciding on the most cost-efficient measures to reduce infrastructure vulnerability to extreme events for housing, buildings, bridges, roads, tunnels, pipelines, and electricity infrastructure in the developed and developing worlds.

Canada’s Top Climate Change Risks identifies the top risk areas based on the extent and likelihood of the potential damage, and rates the risk areas according to society’s ability to adapt and reduce negative outcomes. These 12 major areas of risk are: agriculture and food, coastal communities, ecosystems, fisheries, forestry, geopolitical dynamics, governance and capacity, human health and wellness, Indigenous ways of life, northern communities, physical infrastructure, and water. The report describes an approach to inform federal risk prioritization and adaptation responses. The Panel outlines a multi-layered method of prioritizing adaptation measures based on an understanding of the risk, adaptation potential, and federal roles and responsibilities.

This book provides essential information and advice on how to facilitate the integration of climate change adaptation into development processes.

This comprehensive Handbook assesses the escalation of global natural disasters as a result of climate change. Examining the complex interplay of human and natural activities, it highlights the growing vulnerability of people and communities in developing countries to floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves and wildfires.