Toward indicators of the performance of US infrastructures under climate change risks
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Toward indicators of the performance of US infrastructures under climate change risks Thomas J. Wilbanks 1 & Rae Zimmerman 2 & Susan Julius 3 & Paul Kirshen 4 & Joel B. Smith 5 & Richard Moss 6 & William Solecki 7 & Matthias Ruth 8 & Stephen Conrad 9 & Steven J. Fernandez 10 & Michael S. Matthews 11 & Michael J. Savonis 12 & Lynn Scarlett 13 & Henry G. Schwartz Jr 14 & G. Loren Toole 15 Received: 2 January 2017 / Accepted: 5 November 2020/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
Built infrastructures are increasingly disrupted by climate-related extreme events. Being able to monitor what climate change implies for US infrastructures is of considerable importance to all levels of decision-makers. A capacity to develop cross-cutting, widely applicable indicators for more than a dozen different kinds of infrastructure, however, is severely limited at present. The development of such indicators must be considered an ongoing activity that will require expansion and refinement. A number of recent consensus reports suggest four priorities for indicators that portray the impacts of climate change, climate-related extreme events, and other driving forces on infrastructure. These are changes in the reliability of infrastructure services and the implications for costs; changes in the resilience of infrastructures to climate and other stresses; impacts due to the interdependencies of infrastructures; and ongoing adaptation in infrastructures. Keywords Climate change . Indicators . US infrastructures . Reliability . Resilience . Interdependencies . Adaptation
1 Introduction Kenney et al. (2018) in this Special Issue propose using indicators to provide an ongoing assessment of the state of climate change impacts on important US economic and natural sectors as a means to support a sustained US National Climate Assessment (NCA). The National Climate Indicators System (NCIS) identified built infrastructure as a topic of interest for inclusion in the system (Kenney et al. 2018; Kenney et al. 2016: Buizer et al. 2013; Kenney et al. 2014). Built infrastructures The authors Thomas J. Wilbanks, Michael J. Savonis, and Steven J. Fernandez are deceased.
* Paul Kirshen [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Climatic Change
are among the most prominent systems impacted by many kinds of climate-related extreme events, and are comprised of the buildings we live and work in, and our communication, transportation, energy, and water systems (examples are Schweikert et al. 2014; Abdrabo and Hassaan 2015; Hayhoe et al. 2010; Chappin and van der Lei 2014; Panteli et al. 2015; Douglas et al. 2017; Moss et al. 2019; Koliou et al. 2020). Being able to monitor the impacts of climate events on these infrastructures is of critical importance to help address questions about the degree of impacts and potential responses to protect infrastructures and their services. Kenney et al. (2018) describe issues of importance to the NCA. Are these infrastructures more or less vulnerable now due to changes in th
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