Climate Change and Freight-Transportation Infrastructure: Current Challenges for Adaptation

The transportation system infrastructure in the United States is vital to sustaining the nation’s economy, safety, and well-being. In its recent special report, Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation, the National Research Council concluded that climate change will have significant impacts on transportation systems, affecting design, construction, operation, and maintenance. Furthermore, the report calls for a focus on the problem now through adaptation planning to avoid costly future investments and disruptions to operations. This begins with sharing information, resources, best practices, and lessons learned across jurisdictional lines and among different stakeholders. With this in mind, a select group of stakeholders representing the freight-transportation industry and climate science participated in a summit held at Vanderbilt University in 2011, to reach consensus on the needs and challenges that must be addressed in order for successful adaptation strategies to emerge. This paper presents a brief review of the relevant literature on this topic, shares the outcomes and findings of summit deliberations, and provides recommendations for a path forward.