The buckled roads and melted power cables caused by recent record heat in the Pacific Northwest were the latest illustration of the types of hazards posed to infrastructure by climate change and its extremes. Increasingly, the nation’s roads, bridges, and electrical grid face not just normal wear-and-tear from use but added punishment from higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and more intense hurricanes.

So, as the U.S. debates whether and how to invest in its infrastructure, a lot is at stake, said Mariette diChristina, dean of the College of Communication at Boston University.

“Infrastructure is built to last for decades — sometimes even a hundred years or more — so what we decide to do today will have a large effect on how things go tomorrow, including how we adapt to or mitigate climate change in the future.”

DiChristina moderated a June webinar hosted by the National Academies that explored the intersection of climate change and infrastructure. The discussion included John L. Anderson, president of the National Academy of Engineering, and Thomas Bostick, former chief of engineers and commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), who was responsible for most of the nation’s civil works infrastructure during his tenure and led the recovery effort following Hurricane Sandy. 

A range of risks for infrastructure

Climate change poses a variety of threats to infrastructure, explained Anderson, noting that one example is the thawing of permafrost; in some areas, the built environment sits on ground that is supposed to be frozen 12 months of the year and now isn’t. Meanwhile, the Southwest is facing water management issues, the East coast is coping with flooding, and coastal regions are grappling with salinization of soils.

“It differs from region to region, so there’s no one answer for the United States,” said Anderson. “It has to be geographically targeted, and many different disciplines need to come into play. The important point is we have to worry about it, and we have to do something about it and design for it.”

Nature-based infrastructure, such as living shorelines, also needs attention, said Bostick. “That’s part of our infrastructure, and it’s an important part of our ecosystem that we have to focus on as we look at climate change.”

Bostick noted that much of the Army Corps of Engineers’ infrastructure is over 50 years old, and some of it is crumbling because of lack of funds for maintenance — a major issue for infrastructure in general. Given the many needs competing for government resources, Bostick sees a role for the private sector going forward. “A big part of how we pay for it in the future, I think, has to consider public-private partnerships.”

He also stressed the importance of prioritizing among infrastructure projects and finishing them rather than spreading money thinly over many projects that then take a long time to complete. “Setting priorities is the other really important part of moving forward.”

Bending without breaking

The need to build infrastructure that’s resilient — capable of “bending but not breaking” and recovering in what will likely be increasingly daunting conditions — was stressed by both speakers.  

“To me, that’s what resilience is all about,” said Bostick. “We need to think about that in all of our systems, because there’s going to be a bigger Katrina, there’s going to be a bigger Sandy, there’s going to be a bigger Hurricane Maria, and they’re going to be right around the corner.”

Bostick offered an example of resilient infrastructure in the context of the Mississippi River and tributary system, which saw massive floods in 1927, 1994, and 2011. After the 1927 flood — which killed nearly 1,000 people and inundated millions of acres of farmland — the USACE was directed to build the system of locks and dams and floodways along the river.

At a chokepoint south of St. Louis where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge, the volume of water is so huge that it’s impossible to build anything that can resist it, said Bostick. So the USACE built a floodway — 5 miles wide and 65 miles long — to allow the river to flood on purpose, relieving pressure on the infrastructure. During the 2011 flood, the Corps opened up the levy and let the river inundate the floodway.

It was an example of bending but not breaking, and also of improving infrastructure over time. While the 2011 flood had a much higher volume of water than the 1927 flood, it caused far less damage, said Bostick. “You want to adapt so that you’re stronger — so that [for] your next cycle, you actually have a higher level of functionality.”

Building structures that can adapt to climate change and withstand its extremes will require innovation, said Anderson. “As we build new physical structures, we [need to] think about the digital part of it — for example, building in sensors that tell you something about the current state of the structure and might give you information or warning if something’s going to fail.”

Innovation will also play a role in mitigating the extent of climate change. “The net-zero carbon goals we have will require many creative engineering achievements,” said Anderson, noting that innovation is needed in carbon sequestration, direct carbon capture, and integrating renewables into the electrical grid, among other areas.

“There’s no silver bullet,” said Anderson. “But I think that makes the problem interesting, and there’s a lot of room for creative people from various backgrounds to contribute.”

The need for greater equity

The harmful impacts of climate change are not being distributed equally, and Anderson stressed the importance of equity in responding to climate change. “I believe in equity and quality of life for all of our citizens, and underprivileged groups will suffer most from the impacts of climate change — and perhaps even from some of the methods to address climate change — so as engineers, we have to be cognizant of that problem.”

Bostick recalled working on a National Academies study for FEMA on urban flooding, a project that took the study committee to some major cities around the country. “One of the telling facts that came out of that was that people of color, the elderly, the poor and disadvantaged were affected a lot more by where they lived and the urban flooding that was occurring across America. And this was a real problem for a lot of people for a long time.”

Bostick stressed the importance of including the voices of people from disproportionately affected locations in discussions about responses to climate change, as well as strengthening STEM education for young people from these areas so that can be part of the discussions and the solutions when they grow up. He also pointed to the need to engage sociologists, psychologists, communicators, and educators along with engineers in addressing equity issues around infrastructure. “This is a challenge that is an interdisciplinary effort where we need a lot of hands on deck.”

Related Resources

• Watch the webinar

• Register for the next Climate Conversations webinar on July 15, which will explore the intersection of climate change and national and global security.