Climate change is intensifying weather-related impacts on the transportation system. As extreme weather events become more common and destructive, transportation infrastructure will need to adapt to become more resilient.
In Minnesota, the impacts of climate change are already affecting the state’s transportation system, but the extent of the potential repercussions is not yet well understood. To gain a more thorough understanding of these impacts, MnDOT is undertaking a strategic approach to measuring and tracking how climate change is affecting the state’s transportation system. Part of the work is the development of climate-resilience performance measures.
A MnDOT Transportation Research Synthesis presents the findings of a survey of state transportation agencies about the performance measures and practices they use to monitor their climate resilience efforts. Among the findings:
- Alaska DOT and Public Facilities has established a resilience team that is considering performance measures as part of its selection criteria.
- Delaware DOT’s Transportation Resiliency and Sustainability division, initiated less than a year ago, will consider performance measures to gauge progress.
- Georgia DOT has created a resiliency committee with a core focus on mitigation, resilience, repetitive loss identification, and grants management. Goals for the next year include establishing and implementing an overall strategy.
- Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is currently developing and implementing performance measures.
The synthesis also includes follow-up case studies of three state DOTs. The Colorado DOT, for example, has developed tools to adopt resiliency planning and to measure asset risk and resilience.
Going forward, MnDOT intends to use the synthesis findings to help inform future risk analysis and plan for new federal climate programs, including the PROTECT program. PROTECT—Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation—is a provision of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Learn more:
- Developing Transportation System Climate Resilience Performance Measures (MnDOT, June 2022)