Resilience in Transportation Networks, Volume 2: Network Resilience Toolkit and Techniques (2024)
Chapter: 2 Solution Sets for Enhancing Resilience (Institutional, Supply Chain, Individual)
2 Solution Sets for Enhancing Resilience (Institutional, Supply Chain, Individual)
When considering the different toolkits like those summarized in Appendix A of NCHRP Research Report 1118: Incorporating Resilience into Transportation Networks, project managers dealing with risk and resilience should understand where and how solutions link to these principles. To organize relevant approaches, the table below groups solution sets according to the type of problem they are solving. For example, information technology solutions provide software-centric outputs that can be utilized in a format that has robust answers to specific risk and resilience threats. Infrastructure solutions can be characterized by their ability to provide guidelines that improve physical transportation operations designed to overhaul old practices in favor of sustainable methodology. Educational solutions have a unique use-case revolving around frameworks and policies that can be implemented in specific situations. These frameworks may provide scorecards focused on quantitative reasoning toward the implementation of certain risk and resilience principles for modern, sustainable, and equitable practices.
These specific solution sets were sourced from the research conducted to develop the toolkit (see Appendix A of NCHRP Research Report 1118). When summarizing the toolkit, it became clear that risk and resilience toward wildfires, hurricanes, and rising sea levels are the most pertinent threats to transportation. By expanding beyond the guidelines and frameworks identified in the Appendix A, these examples provide context and information on actual practices that have made transportation systems more resilient.
The following table categorizes solution sets that have incorporated different methodologies toward risk and resilience within transportation projects.
Table 28 Climate Change Threat
| Climate Change Threat | |||
| Wildfires | Hurricane Events | Rising Sea Levels | |
| Information Technology Solutions | Resilient System Solutions for Using Data in Wildland Fire Incident Operations32 Goal: “Deliver rich and informative data with a |
Hurricane proof your supply chain33 “Use AI and Mapping Data to quickly identify high-risk suppliers, sites, and parts.” |
Surface Transportation, Sea Level Rise, and Coastal Storms: A |
___________________
32 “Resilient System Solutions for Using Data in Wildland Fire Incident Operations,” Michigan Tech Research Institute, n.d., https://www.mtu.edu/mtri/research/project-areas/environmental/fire/wildfire-dln/.
33 Resilinc Editorial Team, “Hurricane Proof Your Supply Chain,” Resilinc, June 2022, https://www.resilinc.com/blog/hurricane-proof-your-supply-chain/.
robust system that supports file transfer and access across disconnected, heterogenous networks.”
|
Create what-if scenarios using hurricane modeling with disruption data. “Key solution output provides an identification of how affected suppliers will perform and propose a risk action plan.” |
Sustainable Path to Increased Resilience34 Alabama will be able to:
|
|
| Infrastructure Solutions | Wildfire Resilience35 California implemented, on an institutional level, grant opportunities to provide “technical and financial assistance” for nonindustrial timberland owners. Prioritization of grant money was directed toward practices including, “brush thinning, tree release, pruning, site preparation, tree planting.” |
Improving Resilience of Transportation Infrastructure to Hurricane Damage36 North Carolina is conducting a project dated for completion at the end of 2022 that will understand the “performance of different maintenance, repair, and reconstruction strategies deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew” through an evaluations and quantitative assessment process. |
Pavement Resilience to Sea Level Rise and Potential Mitigation Options Using Natural and Nature-Based Features37 New Hampshire and Alabama can identify pavement deterioration curves (serviceability) by comparing damage functions of sea level rise with and without adaptations for resilience. |
___________________
34 Benjamin Bowers et. al., “Surface Transportation, Sea Level Rise, and Coastal Storms: A Sustainable Path to Increased Resilience,” National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, October 2021, https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/surface-transportation-sea-level-rise-and-coastal-storms-a-sustainable-path-to-increased-resilience/.
35 “Wildfire Resilience,” Cal Fire Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, n.d., https://www.fire.ca.gov/programs/resource-management/resource-protection-improvement/wildfire-resilience/.
36 “Improving Resilience of Transportation Infrastructure to Hurricane Damage,” National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, March 2021, https://rip.trb.org/view/1843143.
37 Jo Sias et. al., “Pavement Resilience to Sea Level Rise and Potential Mitigation Options Using Natural and Nature-Based Features,” National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, November 2021, https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/coastal-communities-pavement-resilience-to-sea-level-rise-using-natural-and-nature-based-features/.
| Educational Solutions |
U.S. Forest Service Transportation Resiliency Guidebook: Addressing Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Forest Service Transportation Assets38 “Forest Service Climate Change Initiatives:
“Forest Service Planning Processes:
“Potential Funding Sources:
|
New Solutions to Strengthen Hurricane Resilience39 List of tools to simulate and visualize the potential impacts of storm surge and flooding on local communities |
Sea Level Rise: Adaptation Strategies40
|
___________________
38 Benjamin Rasmussen et al., “U.S. Forest Service Transportation Resiliency Guidebook: Addressing Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Forest Service Transportation Assets,” ROSA P (United States. Forest Service, September 2018), https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/38737.
39 “New Solutions to Strengthen Hurricane Resilience,” Homeland Security, September 27, 2018, https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/blog/2018/09/27/new-solutions-strengthen-hurricane-resilience.
40 “Adaptation Strategies for Sea-Level Rise,” Environmental Resilience Institute, n.d., https://eri.iu.edu/erit/strategies/sea-level-rise.html.
