Study: Climate to affect transportation
WASHINGTON (AP) - March 11, 2008 Climate change will affect every type of transportation through
rising sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense
storms, the National Research Council said in a report released
Tuesday.
Complicating matters, people continue to move into coastal
areas, creating the need for more roads and services in the most
vulnerable regions, the report noted.
"We believe that the threats to our transportation system are
real," Henry Schwartz Jr. said in a briefing. He is past president
and chairman of the engineering firm Sverdrup/Jacobs Civil Inc.,
and chairman of the committee that wrote the report.
The storm that has been a once-in-a-hundred-years event may
become a once-in-50-years, he said, adding, "What is the proper
level to design for?"
Much of the damage will be in coastal areas, but the impact will
affect all areas of the country," Schwartz said. "It's time to
move from the debate about climate science to 'What are we going to
do about it ... how are we going to adapt to it?"'
Luisa M. Paiewonsky, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway
Department said her state is beginning an inventory of low-lying
infrastructure because of the danger of sea-level rise.
Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center,
said "an important message of this report is to begin
incorporating that into design and planning."
The probable costs of such improvements were not analyzed in the
report, but Schwartz said the costs would be significant. However,
he added, it would be less costly to prepare in advance than to
deal with a catastrophe.
The report cites five major areas of growing threat:
- More heat waves, requiring load limits at hot-weather or
high-altitude airports and causing thermal expansion of bridge
joints and rail track deformities.
- Rising sea levels and storm surges flooding coastal roadways,
forcing evacuations, inundating airports and rail lines, flooding
tunnels and eroding bridge bases.
- More rainstorms, delaying air and ground traffic, flooding
tunnels and railways, and eroding road, bridge and pipeline
supports.
- More frequent strong hurricanes, disrupting air and shipping
service, blowing debris onto roads and damaging buildings.
- Rising arctic temperatures thawing permafrost, resulting in
road, railway and airport runway subsidence and potential pipeline
failures.
The nation's transportation system was built for local
conditions based on historical weather data, but those data may no
longer be reliable in the face of new weather extremes, the report
warns.
The committee said proper preparation will be expensive and
called on federal, state and local governments to increase
consideration of climate change in transportation planning and
construction.
The report notes, for example, that drier conditions are likely
in the watersheds supplying the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great
Lakes. The resulting lower water levels would reduce vessel
shipping capacity, seriously impairing freight movements in the
region, such as occurred during the drought of 1988.
Meanwhile, California heat waves are likely to increase
wildfires that can destroy transportation infrastructure.
The outlook isn't all bad, however.
The report says marine transportation could benefit from more
open seas in the Arctic, creating new and shorter shipping routes
and reducing transport time and costs.
The report was prepared by the Transportation Research Board and
the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research
Council. The groups are part of the National Academy of Sciences,
an independent agency chartered by Congress to advise the
government on scientific matters.v
Sponsors of the study were the Transportation Research Board,
the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the
Transportation Department, the Transit Cooperative Research
Program, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of
Engineers.
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