CHAPTER 6

Community of Practice

Key Focus

Identify opportunities to connect with other DOTs and develop partnerships with public and private entities to build flood forecasting capabilities and advance the field of research.

Key Takeaways

• Anticipating, preparing for, and responding to flood impacts is a dynamic area of research and innovation.
• Participating in a community of practice can connect DOTs to state-of-the-art practices, procedures, and technologies.
• A community of practice can support DOTs in leveraging flood forecasting to inform resilience and mitigation investments.

Actions to Accomplish

• Communicate with a network of partners regularly. Key opportunities include sharing what your DOT is doing with other DOTs and with hazard mitigation colleagues.
• Work with partners to identify future research needs.
• Develop a multiagency group to link to broader activities.
• Work with partners to capture projected impacts of future flood conditions at infrastructure assets to inform mitigation investments.

6.1 Overview

The community of practice for flood forecasting provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing and collaboration. Figure 6-1 highlights mature capabilities that support a community of practice.

6.2 Introduction

A community of practice for flood forecasting supports leveraging expertise, research, and data to make resources go further. Establishing strong relationships among the state DOT divisions and between the state DOT and other state and federal offices is an important part of a successful flood prediction and response system (Park et al. 2021). While some DOTs participate in a range of beneficial partnership arrangements that support knowledge sharing and research

advancement, DOTs have expressed interest in learning from each other through a community of practice to advance flood forecasting as a field.

This chapter will cover how DOTs can find opportunities to connect with other DOTs to begin building a community of practice for flood forecasting. Engaging with universities, state agencies, and federal agencies can also help advance the flood forecasting field, and examples of existing resources and research needs will be featured. Insights on vulnerable DOT assets that emerge through flood forecasting information can further support longer-term resilience and mitigation efforts. Opportunities for DOTs to connect with hazard mitigation and resilience planning efforts that may be occurring across other agencies will be highlighted with examples in practice.

The following capabilities align with a mature community of practice:

• DOTs sharing knowledge and lessons learned.
• Resilience meetings with interdisciplinary partners.
• Identification of a research agenda.

This chapter is organized into the following sections to cover how DOTs may begin to engage in or enhance their engagement in the flood forecasting community of practice:

• Connecting to a Community of Practice. Provides an overview of existing opportunities for DOT knowledge sharing along with federal agency resources to support flood forecasting research efforts.
• Resilience and Mitigation. Describes opportunities for connecting observed and projected flooding impacts to longer-term planning efforts.
• Future Research. Identifies key research needs identified by DOTs to advance the use of flood forecasting in DOT planning and operations.

6.3 Connecting to a Community of Practice

Given that flood forecasting is a dynamic area of research and innovation, it would be advantageous for DOTs to approach developing or enhancing their flood forecasting capabilities with a continuous-learning mindset. DOTs have expressed interest in understanding how their peers are approaching flood forecasting and what lessons they have learned. While it can be time-consuming and challenging to identify opportunities for peer exchange, there are existing committees and working groups that can serve as a helpful entry point for a DOT looking to become a part of a community of practice.

Opportunities to Build Your Network

AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association representing all transportation modes to foster the development, operations, and maintenance of an integrated national transportation system (AASHTO 2023). AASHTO’s work is conducted through forums, councils, committees, and task forces in which member departments voluntarily participate. For example, AASHTO hosts the Enterprise/Cross-Discipline Committee on Transportation System Security and Resilience, which covers preparation for and response to both natural and human-made threats, shocks, and stressors to the transportation system. Members of this committee are appointed by the chief executive officer of each member department. They have expertise in areas such as emergency management, planning, design, environment, maintenance, and operations. AASHTO also hosts a monthly Risk and Resilience Working Group meeting with an option to sign up for monthly updates online. Opportunities for other risk and resilience-related meetings, resources, and training are available online through the working group website (AASHTO ERM 2023).

There are also opportunities to engage with transportation professionals on an international scale. The World Road Association (PIARC) is a nonprofit association that promotes international cooperation on road and transportation issues (PIARC 2023). PIARC establishes and coordinates member technical committees (TCs) around strategic themes that focus on changing climate conditions and roadway resilience. The TC on Planning the Resilience of Road Networks – Climate Change and Other Hazards (TC 1.4) focuses on enhancing resilience through methodologies and approaches for road network planning and road infrastructure designs. The TC on Disaster Management (TC 1.5) focuses on exploring operational planning aspects to enhance road management’s resilience to extreme weather. The PIARC Strategic Plan for 2024–2027 provides further details on the strategic themes and associated technical committees (PIARC 2023).

The Transportation Research Board offers many opportunities for DOTs to engage in research and share knowledge. In November 2023, TRB held an international transportation resilience conference focused on extreme weather and climate change challenges, with one of the primary conference objectives being to develop an international peer learning network to exchange ideas (Transportation Research Board 2023a). TRB Standing Technical Committees offer more frequent engagement opportunities for transportation researchers and practitioners and are generally open to anyone who wishes to attend. For example, TRB hosts the Standing Committee on Hydrology and Hydraulics related to transportation systems, focusing on design methods, procedures, and processes for constructing, operating, and maintaining resilient transportation facilities (Transportation Research Board 2023b). To volunteer for TRB committee activities, DOT staff can contact TRB staff or committee chairs directly and sign up as a Friend of a Committee at MyTRB.org to receive correspondence and updates.

Professional organizations also provide avenues to engage across disciplines through conferences and volunteer opportunities. For example, the National Hydrologic Warning Council (NHWC) focuses on providing warnings of hydrologic disasters through automated remote data-collection networks, modeling and analyses, and integrated hazard communication. NHWC offers a biennial conference as well as interactive workshops on specific topics, such as installing, repairing, and maintaining flood warning systems. These offerings can provide opportunities to connect with emergency management, academic, and federal agency personnel (National Hydrologic Warning Council 2023).

Leveraging Partner Resources

DOTs can leverage federal resources and partnership opportunities to help advance research and access emerging tools. In the survey of DOTs, the most common federal agencies DOTs reported coordinating with were FHWA, NWS, FEMA, USGS, and USACE. Opportunities for grant funding, partnerships, and knowledge sharing through these agencies, with examples in practice, are highlighted in Table 6-1.

To support flood forecasting efforts, universities can provide scientific expertise and advanced technologies through partnerships. For example, Missouri DOT is working with the University of Missouri, Kansas City, to use remote sensing technology to estimate infrastructure dimensions to help improve asset impact thresholds and flow rate estimates. Regional municipal planning organizations and local governments are also important partners to engage with when building a community of practice around flood forecasting. Regional and local organizations can provide unique insights into flooding challenges and support piloting new technologies. For example, in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has contracted with Xlyem to pilot roadway water-level sensor technologies in collaboration with local governments. This sensor network sends alerts to Waze to help inform the public of real-time roadway flooding conditions (Katchmark 2021).

Given the resource constraints of state DOTs, grant funding may enable the pursuit of research efforts and expansion of DOT capabilities and capacity. In addition to the PROTECT grants noted in Table 6-1, the U.S. DOT maintains the DOT Discretionary Grants Dashboard, which provides communities with an overview of grant opportunities that can support their transportation infrastructure initiatives (U.S. Department of Transportation 2023). The dashboard allows for interactive filtering to find relevant grants, including filtering by eligible activities, applicants, and transportation types. Identifying key stakeholders can help build a strong grant application, such as through identifying relevant divisions (e.g., planning or engineering) within a DOT and with external partners, including regional organizations, nonprofit organizations, private-sector firms, and academic institutions.

Table 6-1. Opportunities to partner with federal agencies.

6.4 Resilience and Mitigation

While flood forecasts can help inform short-term event planning and response, DOTs can also use this information to support longer-term planning efforts. By assessing the exposure and vulnerability of transportation assets to changing flood conditions, DOTs can develop a more comprehensive understanding of flood risk.

Partnerships play an important role in gathering hazard condition data for assessing transportation asset vulnerability. Data on the following hazards provide a useful foundation:

• Projected changes in inland floodplains.
• Projected changes in precipitation frequency and intensity.
• Changes in coastal flood hazards based on sea-level rise scenarios and storm surge.

NCDOT had resilience and mitigation as a goal for its flood forecasting system. By comparing projected flooding hazard changes to asset locations, the evolving vulnerability of the assets can be assessed. Information on asset flood vulnerability under current and future conditions can help prioritize or inform mitigation investments.

The FHWA’s Addressing Resilience to Climate Change & Extreme Weather in Transportation Asset Management (Federal Highway Administration 2023a) provides several checklists of items to guide DOTs through establishing risk management frameworks. The checklist for integrating resilience into the risk management process for transportation asset management includes the following: identifying and prioritizing hazard/environmental risks, developing risk mitigation strategies, developing and using a risk register to track risks, and using a multidisciplinary team to identify risks and develop detailed risk assessments (Federal Highway Administration 2023a). This team could include both internal and external stakeholders spanning the public and private sectors and

multiple levels of government. Kansas DOT participates in an interdisciplinary hazard mitigation team that includes several state agencies, such as the Kansas Department of Agriculture and Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing; federal agencies, such as FEMA and NWS; and local government associations (Kansas Adjutant General’s Department 2023). The hazard mitigation team works to assess hazard mitigation needs; develop, implement, and fund mitigation strategies; and promote coordination across all levels of government (Kansas Adjutant General’s Department 2023). Caltrans developed the Climate Change Communication Guide, which identifies regular multiagency working groups or task force meetings as opportunities to communicate information on DOT climate change efforts (Caltrans 2023). These existing coordination points can be leveraged for further conversations around flood forecasting and to support building a community of practice.

By considering current and future flood risks, DOTs can develop investment strategies to manage currently at-risk assets and reduce future flood risk through resilient design. For example, VDOT updated its Manual of the Structure and Bridge Division (Virginia Department of Transportation 2020b) to integrate climate projections into new construction projects. Chapter 33 of the manual, Considerations of Climate Change and Coastal Storms, includes incorporating materials to address sea-level rise and salinity changes for bridge and transportation structure design (Virginia Department of Transportation 2020b). Adjustments to deck drainage, scour, stream pressure, and buoyancy design parameters are also included to account for increased rainfall intensity and storage (Virginia Department of Transportation 2020b). To continue incorporating resilience into transportation planning, project development, operations, maintenance, and asset management, VDOT has developed a strategy-based framework through its VDOT Resilience Plan (Virginia Department of Transportation 2022). As DOTs continue to plan for future climate conditions, documented frameworks are important for identifying priorities, measuring success, and building partnerships.

6.5 Future Research

A flood forecasting community of practice provides a platform for knowledge sharing to help identify research needs and partnership opportunities to address existing gaps in knowledge. The items in Table 6-2 provide a starting point for thinking about future research needs based on conversations with DOTs held through this research effort. As federal agencies actively work to advance their data products, such as the NWM or rainfall projections, the community of practice plays a vital role in disseminating new information that DOTs can leverage.

Table 6-2. Research needs identified by DOT participants and the project research team.