"Disaster management aims to reduce or avoid potential losses from hazards, assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims of disaster, and achieve rapid and effective recovery”. 1 Society depends on well functioning transport during disasters. Developing reliable information collection and sharing systems is the first step of proactive disaster management.
Countries acquire unique disaster management knowledge and develop tailored countermeasure technologies based on their unique disaster experiences. The type of technologies necessary to manage disasters continually adapt as populations grow and society changes. More countries are considering the management of disasters with a series of management techniques applied through the pre-event, event, and post-event phases. 2
These event phases form a Disaster Management Cycle composed of core response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness activities that take place during the lifecycle of a disaster.
Successful activities performed during the Disaster Management Cycle (Figure 1-1) prevent or reduce future emergencies caused by disastrous events as well as minimize their effect on transport networks.
Figure 1-1 Disaster Management Cycle
Transport disaster reduction activities in the Hyogo Framework for Action followed by the Sendai Framework for Action provide a strong institutionalized basis for disaster management while ensuring an understanding of worldwide disaster risk and resilience. 3
Figure 1-2 Twenty five years of international commitments to disaster risk reduction
In the United States, “The National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) provides context for how the whole community works together to restore, redevelop, and revitalize the health, social, economic, natural, and environmental fabric of the community.” 4
“Cities (around the world) have significant opportunities for disaster risk reduction, accelerated response and recovery through land use planning, building codes and regulations, risk assessments, monitoring and early warning, and building-back-better response and reconstruction approaches”. 5
Unprecedented increases in mobile telecommunications and social media data instantaneously conveys vast amounts of important information to road users throughout the world providing real-time disaster awareness.Techniques utilizing Big Data and Social Network Data provide information during all disaster management cycle phases, from twitter feed situational awareness and response to crowdsourcing earthquake recovery data to machine learning mapping data sets for mitigation and preparedness.
In May of 1994, United Nations (UN) member states met in Yokohama, Japan, for the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction. The Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World: Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation, containing the Principles, the Strategy, and the Plan of Action were adopted at this World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction.
The following ten Principles were adopted:
Disaster Reduction frameworks continued to develop In December of 1999, when the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction or “UNISDR” was created to respond to a need for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction within the UN's development and other work areas. It serves as the UN system focal point for coordination of disaster reduction and ensures synergies among UN system and regional organizations in disaster reduction activities, and socio-economic and humanitarian activity fields. 1
At the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held during January of 2005 in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, a framework was adopted and presented as: Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. During this conference, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was adopted by 168 United Nation Member States and is the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses.
The following five Priorities for Action were adopted:
Figure 1.1.1 Hyogo Framework Priorities for Action
DRR or Disaster Risk Reduction, requires a strong national and local commitment to save lives and livelihoods threatened by natural hazards. Natural hazards must be considered in public and private sector decision-making in the same way that environmental and social impact assessments are currently required. Countries must therefore develop or modify policies, laws, and organizational arrangements, as well as plans, programmes, and projects, to integrate DRR. They must also allocate sufficient resources to support and maintain them. This includes creating effective, multi-sector national platforms to provide policy guidance and to coordinate activities; Integrating DRR into development policies and planning, such as poverty reduction strategies; and, ensuring community participation, so that local needs are met.
The United States,‘a nation committed to finding strength in the face of unpredictable and devastating disasters’, has the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Their core values are compassion, integrity, fairness and respect. FEMA’s History includes the following seven events: 1
The first legislative act of federal disaster relief in U.S. history followed a devastating fire in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in December 1802. The destruction of large areas of the city’s seaport threatened commerce in the newly founded nation. In 1803, U.S. Congress provided relief to affected Portsmouth merchants by suspending bond payments for several months.
President Carter signed Executive Order 12127, effective April 1, 1979, establishing FEMA. Shortly after, in signing Executive Order 12148 on July 20, 1979, President Carter gave the agency the dual mission of emergency management and civil defense.
The agency’s authorities were further defined and expanded by the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Amendments of 1988, which amended the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 and renamed it the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act). The Stafford Act provided clear direction for emergency management and established the current statutory framework for disaster response and recovery through presidential disaster declarations.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 changed the face of homeland security and emergency management and drove major statute and policy changes to reorganize the federal government. In 2002, President W. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act, leading to the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department was created on March 1, 2003 and united FEMA and 21 other organizations.
In August 2005 the historic Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Mississippi, causing large-scale devastation along the Gulf Coast, displacing families to all 50 states and resulting in billions in losses to infrastructure and the economy. Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 which established FEMA as a distinct agency within DHS, defined FEMA’s primary mission, and designated the FEMA Administrator as the principal advisor to the President, the Homeland Security Council, and the Secretary of Homeland Security for all matters relating to emergency management in the United States.
Federal capabilities were tested once again in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy affected the entire East Coast. The storm’s effects were extensive, leaving millions without power, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, and causing billions in damages. Subsequently, Congress passed the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013 to streamline the recovery of public infrastructure and to allow Federally recognized tribes to directly request a Presidential declaration.
In 2017, the nation faced a historic Atlantic hurricane season and extreme wildfire disasters. The unprecedented and rapid succession of disasters transformed emergency management and focused efforts to build a culture of preparedness, ready the nation for catastrophic disasters, and reduce FEMA’s complexity. Congress provided the agency with expanded authorities to further these goals by enacting the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018. The legislation is a landmark law that highlights the federal government’s commitment to increasing investments in mitigation and building the capabilities of state, local, tribal and territorial partners.
Identify, assess, and monitor disaster risks – and enhance early warning. To reduce vulnerability to natural hazards, countries and communities must know the risks that they face, and take actions based on that knowledge.
Understanding risk requires investment in scientific, technical, and institutional capabilities to observe, record, research, analyze, forecast, model and map natural hazards. Tools need to be developed and disseminated: statistical information about disaster events, risk maps, disaster vulnerability and risk indicators are essential. Most importantly, countries need to use this knowledge to develop effective early warning systems, appropriately adapted to the unique circumstances of the people at risk. Early warning is widely accepted as a crucial component of disaster risk reduction. When effective early warning systems provide information about a hazard to a vulnerable population, and plans to act, thousands of lives can be saved.
Earthquake early warning systems are in use in Japan, Mexico, Romania, China, Turkey, Italy, and Taiwan. and the United States.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) manages ShakeAlert®, an early warning system for the West Coast of the United States. 1
Figure 1.1.1.2 ShakeAlert
‘The most important component of an earthquake early warning system is a dense network of seismic and geodetic stations with robust communications. Future development of the warning system will include the installation of larger numbers of seismic stations and upgrading station telecommunications. The current seismic station densities in California are currently much lower than the Japanese public alert system. New sensors are needed in California to reduce earthquake detection times allowing warnings to be issued faster.’ 2
Use knowledge, innovation, and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels. Disasters can be reduced substantially if people are well informed about measures they can take to reduce vulnerability - and if they are motivated to act. Key activities to increase awareness of disaster prevention include providing relevant information on disaster risks and means of protection, especially for citizens in high-risk areas; Strengthening networks and promoting dialogue and cooperation among disaster experts, technical and scientific specialists, planners, and other stakeholders; Including disaster risk reduction subject matter in formal, non-formal, and informal education and training activities; developing or strengthening community-based disaster risk management programmes; and, working with the media in disaster risk reduction.
Two tools to strengthen knowledge, awareness, and reduce risk are Firecast and FloodCast.
Firecast is a forest and fire monitoring and forecast system, provided and managed by Conservation International (https://www.conservation.org), and currently operating in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Madagascar, Peru, and Suriname. This system is a fully automated analysis and alert system that delivers a range of near real-time (NRT) monitoring products tailored to a user’s specific needs. These include simple text-based emails containing the coordinates of active fires, or risk of fire within a user’s specified area of interest (i.e., protected areas, areas of high biodiversity importance, different vegetation and land cover types, administrative units, or user-defined regions).” 1
Using satellites from The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the system can detect ‘deforestation in action — alerting about immediate threats and revealing trends of anthropogenic change. 2 The daily monitoring capabilities of these satellite also reveal trends in earth’s dynamics and can indicate increasing severity of drought conditions.’ 3
Figure 1.1.1.3 Global fire density observed from MODIS August 2019
The other tool, FloodCast, is a phase IV research project in the United States, titled FloodCast, Phase IV: A Framework for Enhanced Flood Event Decision Making for Transportation Resilience, that ‘aims to strengthen United States DOT flood response capabilities through the integration of real-time actionable flood forecast information into transportation asset management and emergency operations. A substantial enhancement to the existing DOT planning and response toolkit can be achieved by incorporating dynamic inundation mapping that allows for the rapid translation of stream flow predictions of anticipated events to flood elevation, inundation extent and flood depth products along the hydrologic network.
FloodCast attempts to achieve this through coordinating with relevant stakeholders, setting standards for data management, developing methods for flood forecasting processes, delivering incident projection information to DOTs, and providing guidance for the application of outputs in various use cases. A successful FloodCast system will serve to protect human health and safety in the event of extreme weather conditions, while also informing and enhancing longer-term maintenance, planning, and investment decisions.’ 4
Reduce the underlying risk factors. Vulnerability to natural hazards is increased in many ways, for example: locating communities in hazard-prone areas, such as flood plains; destroying forests and wetlands, thereby harming the capacity of the environment to withstand hazards; building public facilities and housing unable to withstand the impacts of hazards; and not having social and financial safety mechanisms in place. Countries can build resilience to disasters by investing in simple, well-known measures to reduce risk and vulnerability. Disasters can be reduced by applying relevant building standards to protect critical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, and homes. Vulnerable buildings can be retrofitted to a higher degree of safety. Protecting precious ecosystems, such as coral reefs and mangrove forests, allow them to act as natural storm barriers.
To reduce risk and gather subject matter expertise in one web location concerning vulnerability to natural hazards and climate resilience in the United States, the US has assembled a Climate Resilience Toolkit (https://toolkit.climate.gov). The purpose of the Toolkit ‘is to improve people’s ability to understand and manage their climate-related risks and opportunities, and to help them make their communities and businesses more resilient to extreme events.’ 1, 2
Figure 1.1.1.4 Steps to Resilience
Strengthen disaster preparedness for an effective emergency response. Being prepared and ready to act, with contingency plans in place including conducting risk assessments, before investing in development at all levels of society will enable people to become more resilient to natural hazards.
Preparedness involves many types of activities and may include the following:
1. Development and regular testing of contingency plans such as:
- Emergency Operation Plans
- Operation Center Management Plans
- Vulnerability / Risk Assessment Plans
- Winter Operations Plans
- Power Shut off Plans
- Pandemic Response Plans
- Emergency Work Guidance Plans
- Continuity of Operations Plans
- Continuity of Government Plans
2. Establishment of emergency funds
3. Development of coordinated regional approaches
4. Establishment of training, exercises, and drills
Disaster preparedness includes continuous dialogue between response agencies, planners, policymakers, and development organizations as well as training and regular exercises, including evacuation drills, to ensure rapid and effective disaster response. Preparedness plans also help to cope with the many small and medium-sized disasters that repeatedly occur in so many communities.
The United States utilizes a National Response Framework (NRF) ‘…that provides foundational emergency management doctrine for how the Nation (United States) responds to all types of incidents. The NRF is built on scalable, flexible, and adaptable concepts identified in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to align key roles and responsibilities across the Nation (United States).” 1
Training for emergencies, such as Incident Command System (ICS) training as well as specific emergency specific training geared towards a specific credible threat, such as an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, severe storm, severe snow, wildfire, drought, tsunami, flood, avalanche, train derailment, or civil disobedience is a necessary part of preparedness.
Natural and manmade hazards cannot be prevented, but it is possible to reduce their impacts by having an exercised plan in place.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (formerly UNISDR) is the United Nations focal point for disaster risk reduction, overseeing the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, supporting countries in its implementation, monitoring and sharing what works in reducing existing risk and preventing the creation of new risk. 1
Figure 1.1.2-1 Sendai Framework Targets
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015. Seven global targets and four priorities of action are to be achieved between 2015 and 2030. The UN creates a Global Assessment Report (GAR) every two years to chart the global progress of the Sendai Framework.
“The Sendai Framework is the roadmap for how we make our communities safer and more resilient, it works hand in hand with the other 2030 Agenda agreements, including The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, The Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, the New Urban Agenda, and ultimately the Sustainable Development Goals.” 2
2. Number of people affected by disasters
3. Economic loss in relation to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
4. Damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services
1. The number of countries with disaster risk reduction strategies
2. International cooperation to developing countries
3. Availability to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments
Priority 1 of the Sendai Framework states that “Policies and practices for disaster risk management should be based on an understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment. Such knowledge can be leveraged for the purpose of pre-disaster risk assessment, for prevention and mitigation and for the development and implementation of appropriate preparedness and effective response to disasters.” 1
Risk assessment is an important part of this priority. “New Zealand has developed their first national climate change risk assessment, helping the Government identify where it needs to prioritize action. The assessment:
Figure 1.1.2.1 New Zealand Risk Assessment Stages
Priority 2 of the Sendai Framework states that “Disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is of great importance for an effective and efficient management of disaster risk. Clear vision, plans, competence, guidance, and coordination within and across sectors, as well as participation of relevant stakeholders, are needed. Strengthening disaster risk governance for prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and rehabilitation is therefore necessary and fosters collaboration and partnership across mechanisms and institutions for the implementation of instruments relevant to disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.” 1
Key stakeholder coordination within and across sectors can be facilitated using resource contact sheets containing the agency name, contact name, position, and contact information.
Here is a sample template from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) publication, Managing Catastrophic Transportation Emergencies: A Guide for Transportation Executives. 2
Organization | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Agency/Sub-Organization | POC Name | Position Title | Telephone | |
Internal |
|
|
|
|
Homeland Security Coordinator |
|
|
|
|
Emergency Management Coordinator |
|
|
|
|
Emergency Support Function ESF-1 Coordinator |
|
|
|
|
District Contacts |
|
|
|
|
District A |
|
|
|
|
Federal Government |
|
| ||
U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) |
|
|
|
|
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) |
|
|
|
|
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) | ||||
Local FHWA Contact |
|
|
|
|
Interstate |
|
|
|
|
State A |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Other organization as appropriate |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Local |
|
|
|
|
County/Parish A |
|
|
|
|
Sheriff's Office |
|
|
|
|
Fire Department |
|
|
|
|
Other Partners |
|
|
|
|
Priority 3 of the Sendai Framework states that “Public and private investment in disaster risk prevention and reduction through structural and non-structural measures are essential to enhance the economic, social, health and cultural resilience of persons, communities, countries and their assets, as well as the environment. These can be drivers of innovation, growth, and job creation. Such measures are cost-effective and instrumental to save lives, prevent and reduce losses and ensure effective recovery and rehabilitation.” 1
Disaster financial planning is essential for returning, or bouncing back, from a disaster as quickly as possible. In the United States, “Congress authorized in Title 23, United States Code, Section 125, a special program from the Highway Trust Fund for the repair or reconstruction of Federal-aid highways and roads on Federal lands which have suffered serious damage as a result of (1) natural disasters or (2) catastrophic failures from an external cause. This program, commonly referred to as the emergency relief or ER program, supplements the commitment of resources by States, their political subdivisions, or other Federal agencies to help pay for unusually heavy expenses resulting from extraordinary conditions.” 2 , 3
Figure 1.1.2.3 Map of Allocation of Emergency Relief (ER) for Federal-aid Highways (ERFA) Funds and Allotment of Emergency Relief for Federally owned Roads (ERFO) Funds, Fiscal Year (FY) 2022
Priority 4 of the Sendai Framework states that: “The steady growth of disaster risk, including the increase of people and assets exposure, combined with the lessons learned from past disasters, indicates the need to further strengthen disaster preparedness for response, take action in anticipation of events, integrate disaster risk reduction in response preparedness and ensure that capacities are in place for effective response and recovery at all levels. Empowering women and persons with disabilities to publicly lead and promote gender equitable and universally accessible response, recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction approaches is key. Disasters have demonstrated that the recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction phase, which needs to be prepared ahead of a disaster, is a critical opportunity to “Build Back Better”, including through integrating disaster risk reduction into development measures, making nations and communities resilient to disasters.” 1
Lessons learned from past disasters are a key feature of building back better. In the United States, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will reimburse States through it’s Emergency Relief (ER) program for Betterments.
“Betterments are added protective features, such as rebuilding of roadways at a higher elevation or lengthening of bridges, or changes which modify the function or character of a highway facility, from what existed prior to the disaster or catastrophic failure, such as additional lanes or added access control. Betterments must be clearly economically justified to receive ER funding and almost always have a higher initial cost, so the justification must be based on sufficiently reducing future ER eligible damage.” 2 Economical justification depends on the reduction of future damage.
“The following items would likely increase the resiliency of a repair and thus may be eligible for ER funding; provided they are economically justified:”
Equitable and sustainability practices incorporated through hazard mitigation, land use planning, critical infrastructure protection and environmental security are used to harden and often reconstruct our built environment. This ecosystem of resilient practices, or strategies, revitalizes built and natural environments, safeguarding economic and societal welfare for all.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR), Making Cities Resilient Campaign 2030 (MCR2030), has forwarded the local implementation of the Sendai agreement and put resiliency on center stage in a global effort towards disaster resilience. “At the heart of MCR2030 is cooperation; the intention to create opportunities for demand and supply to meet through initiatives tailored to local needs. It embodies the Sendai Framework principle that disaster risk reduction is a shared responsibility across all stakeholders.” 1
In the transportation sector, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), is advancing resilient infrastructure with the development of a Resilience and Disaster Recovery (RDR) Tool. 2
Need: Current performance measures to justify transportation infrastructure project prioritization do not account for resiliency performance in the face of future hazards.
Challenge: Future hazard conditions are highly uncertain, and a range of resilience investment options can be used to address them.
Solution: A robust tool suite to help transportation practitioners evaluate resilience return on investment (ROI) for long-range planning across a range of uncertain scenarios.
Figure 1.2-1 USDOT RDR Tool Suite
California’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in the United States has made advances in the definition and framework for climate resilience. They have developed climate change vulnerability assessments segmenting the State into twelve areas or districts “designed to provide Caltrans with a comprehensive database that will assist with evaluating, mitigating, and adapting to the effects of increasing extreme weather events on the state transportation system. The climate effects examined include rising average temperatures, higher sea levels, storm surge, and precipitation. These in turn increase the incidence of flooding, drought, wildfires, coastal erosion and mudslides.” 3
Climate Vulnerability Assessments were then used by Caltrans to develop Adaptation Priorities Reports 4 specifically designed for areas that have the potential to be adversely impacted. The following figure details the adaptation priorities framework, beginning with assessment of current practices and ending with monitoring and managing system performance.
Figure 1.2-2 Caltrans’ Climate Adaptation Framework
Resiliency during the recovery phase results in the restoration of transportation infrastructure, assets, and systems to their conditions prior to the incident. Recovery can and should involve rebuilding the network beyond its previous condition to a greater standard that is more resilient against future disasters. Resiliency in the recovery phase includes such efforts as improving materials and construction methods to increase the strength of infrastructure, establishing redundancies in the transportation network using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and improving the common links between transportation modes and communities. 5
Highway transportation is a global necessity and essential to the economy of every country. The closure of a highway may not be only an inconvenience to the travelling public but may also cause serious economic loss. The duty of the transportation sector is to provide a safe, secure, and efficient transportation system with maximum performance and minimum impacts.
Resilient strategies based on risk scenarios that encompass local as well as regional specifics including supply chains and the needs of the road user must be understood. Roadway disruptions in different parts of the world require a collaborative multidisciplinary approach geared towards specific local risk scenarios and highlight location asset vulnerabilities that can potentially be prioritized and hardened or multiplied before a disaster occurs.
Making Cities Resilient Campaign 2030 (MCR2030), has developed a three-stage” resilience roadmap that guides cities on how to improve resilience overtime. The resilience roadmap is flexible and iterative, cities can enter MCR2030 at any stage gaining access to a range of tools and technical advisory inputs delivered by different partners.” 1
Figure 1.2.1-1 MCR2030 Resilient Road Map
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) have developed an e-learning platform to promote a global understanding of resilience. The self-paced online course is entitled Making Cities Resilient: developing local disaster risk reduction and resilient strategies. The course contains the following information:
“The Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient were developed to accelerate implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) at local level. The Ten Essentials map directly against the Sendai priorities of action and its indicators for monitoring actions on disaster risk reduction. They are the critical and independent steps that need to be undertaken to build and maintain resilience.”
Figure 1.2.1-2 MCR2030 Ten Essentials for Making Cities resilient
Resilience has been defined by the United States Transportation Research Board (TRB) as the ability to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to changing transportation system conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.
Plans such as an All Hazards and Security Guidance Plan and a Continuity of Operations Plan contain information regarding threats, vulnerabilities, roles and responsibilities. These plans contain information used at transportation departments to assist with a basic definition of resiliency.
The New Zealand Transport Agency answer to the question, What do you mean by resilience is the following:
‘Resilience is about keeping our roads open as much as possible. It’s about preserving and restoring access to the network despite disruptive events. It is about making sure our roads can absorb and withstand disruptive events, that there are planned alternative routes when roads are closed and that they are reopened as soon as possible.
Associated with this is keeping our customers well informed so they can make the best decisions about their travel plans.
In practical terms, this means our state highway network can perform effectively in a crisis, adapt to changing conditions (including climate change) and recover quickly from disturbances. It means minimising any adverse impacts on our customers’. 1 - 2
Figure 1.2.2-1 Improving Resilience of Land Transport Network to Natural Hazards
System stressors include events such as floods (flash flood, coastal flood and dry day flooding), wildfires, earthquakes, thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, cyclones, drought, pandemic (transportation workforce), large scale transportation accidents/disasters affecting infrastructure by land (roadway, transit, railway), by sea (port, waterway/lock) and air (aviation).
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) identified climate stressors ‘or hazards to infrastructure, public health and safety, natural systems, the economy, and other assets and systems that we rely on for a functional society. For Caltrans, the agency needed to consider which climate hazards would impact the State Highway System and its users. At the start of the vulnerability assessment, Caltrans met with internal and external subject matter experts to discuss which climate hazards could impact the highway system and why. Through these conversations, Caltrans focused the assessment on specific events and conditions that could present consequences to the state highway system.
Figure 1.2.2.1.1 Vulnerability Assessment 1
Climate hazards assessed were:
Compound hazards encompassing urbanization, land use, cyber stresses and extreme climate events (i.e. rise in global temperature) also impact transportation.
The following graph from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contains global temperatures during the ten warmest years on record: 2005, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 , 2020 and 2021. October 2021 ranked as the fourth-warmest October in 142 years, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The map below contains significant climate anomalies & events occurring globally during October 2021.
Figure 1.2.2.1.2 NOAA October 2021
Below is a map of the world plotted with some of the most significant climate events that occurred during October 2021. 2
Figure 1.2.2.1.3 October 2021 Global Significant Climate Events Map
An "All Hazards & Security Guidance Plan" for transportation departments is vital to identify the methods used to reduce risks to the transportation system infrastructure posed by possible acts of natural, technological, and human-caused hazards. This plan should highlight the processes used to strengthen preparedness and promote timely response and recovery procedures that significantly reduce deaths, injuries, and other disaster losses.
The overall intent of a guidance plan is to begin to identify and manage risks and potential vulnerabilities associated with a transportation department's assets and infrastructure in order to minimize operational disruptions, ensure economic and social well-being to communities and ensure business and government continuity after catastrophic disasters.
Frameworks include infrastructure, vulnerable assets, hardened assets, multimodal connections, non-traditional networks, redundancy and also assign risk.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has developed a state highway classification system meeting a range of established criteria relating to factors which affect or determine the ‘criticality’ of transport assets and which relate directly to the consequences or impacts of failure.
New Zealand’s framework includes emerging drivers, key challenges and strategic context: carry high volumes of traffic or freight (this would include most rail routes and major highways, port access), are vital to social/economic well being, have no other alternate route, provide access to other critical infrastructure, are control centers, are sections of a network that are critical to commercial imperatives for operators or users, are critical to maintaining law and order, or national security, provide for emergency response (police, fire, medical services, disaster relief), provide for operation of public services, commercial and business travel, high-value personal errands (basic shopping, medical), commuting (work and school). 1
Figure 1.2.2.2 New Zealand Transport Agency Graphic
Vulnerability identifies scale, understands populations including environmental aspects of place, is community supported with redundant systems that plan for utility corridors and aqueducts with redundant power grids and pipelines.
The California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) ‘methodology used to determine the vulnerability of highway system assets varies from one climate stressor to another. Each stressor uses a different set of models, emissions scenarios, and assumptions, and will cause different types of impacts to the state highway system.
Caltrans manages different transportation assets around the state, the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment focused on the state highway system and the assets that make up the system (e.g., bridges, culverts). Caltrans focused on its highways as they are critical to serving transportation needs and economies across the state, and Caltrans is responsible for managing their condition. Caltrans evaluated state highway system exposure to climate stressors one district at a time, for each of the 12 districts across the state. 1
‘Caltrans created a ArcGIS Online mapping tool that allows users to view the data applied in the Caltrans Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment. This tool enables Caltrans staff, stakeholders, policymakers, and California residents to view different climate change projections and identify the state highway system’s exposed areas. The map viewer is dynamic and incorporates new data as it is obtained from various Caltrans projects, identifying which Caltrans assets are exposed to threats from temperature rise, sea level rise, storm surge, cliff retreat, and wildfire events requiring complex geospatial analyses.’ 1
Figure 1.2.2.3 Caltrans Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Map
Community team building results in a defined, fluid outcome and is the basis for managing risk. ”Disasters can have significant and depleting immediate and long-lasting impacts on government budgets and finances, and these impacts may be difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, 2019) estimates that the nation (U.S.) has experienced 254 weather and climate disasters from 1980 to the present for which total costs exceed $1.7 trillion. The following map shows United States weather and disaster costs from 2021: 1
Figure 1.2.2.4.1 United States weather and disaster costs for 2021
A key element in risk management from New Zealand’s Transport Agency (NZTA) is called a Portfolio Risk Assessment (PRA). ‘This assessment results in a database identifying and rating risks to the land transport system. It is not a detailed risk assessment; but is a practical high-level assessment that enables Waka Kotahi to better prioritize resilience risks and develop response strategies. The portfolio risk assessment methodology adopts a Likelihood and Consequence approach to assess risk as outlined in International Organization for Standardization (ISO):31000 Risk Management Principles and Guidelines (ISO, 2009).’ 2
‘Shock events such as earthquake, tsunami, rock-fall or storm-induced flooding and landslip require addressing slightly differently to that of climate-related hazards such as coastal inundation, coastal erosion and groundwater rise (influenced by sea-level rise, refer section 3.2). This PRA approach uses combined likelihood and consequence parameters that influence the level of risk.’ 3
Figure 1.2.2.4.2 Portfolio Risk Assessment (PRA)
1 Corina Warfield, The Disaster Management Cycle, The Global Development Research Center, https://www.gdrc.org/uem/disasters/1-dm_cycle.html
2 2019_TCE3_WG1_Disaster_Information Report
3 World Cities Report 2020, page 28
1 (GA res, 56/195 (2001))
2 https://www.undrr.org/about-undrr
2 See Section 1.3.4 Case Study: USDOT Resilience and Disaster Recovery Tools
3 https://dot.ca.gov/programs/transportation-planning/2019-climate-change-vulnerability-assessments
4 https://dot.ca.gov/programs/transportation-planning/2020-adapation-priorities-reports
1 https://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/planning-preparedness/continuity-planning
1 TC16_TCE_WG2_Report
Natural disaster management starts from detection of phenomena which may cause damage to roads or road transportation. There are suitable ways and methods of detection for each kind of disaster. Monitoring is often applied in the case of where disaster occurs is identified or limited to a narrow area and occurrence of disaster depends on environmental conditions. When occurrence of disaster does not depend on the location or environmental condition of the place, it effectively leads increase of robustness of road network by analyzing vulnerability of road network under effects of disaster. In this section, we introduce three case-studies: Monitoring for rock-falls along a national highway in Austria, vulnerability analysis for earthquakes and wildfires in the USA and for landslides in the Czech Republic. 1
A Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) that contains a transportation agencies’ continuity program can also be used to manage disasters. This plan can be activated in response to a wide range of events or situations - from a fire in a building; to a natural disaster; to a threat or occurrence of a terrorist attack; to a cyber attack; or to a worldwide pandemic. ‘Any event that makes it impossible for employees to work in their regular facility could result in the activation of the continuity plan.’ Having a continuity plan in place is a resilient action. The following figure 1.3 shows the key components of continuity planning. 2
Figure 1.3 Key Components of Continuity
Emergency management has its foundation in the protection of life, property and the environment and consists of four overlapping phases:
Figure 1.3.1 Disaster Management Cycle
Mitigation includes a review of ways to eliminate or reduce the impact of future emergencies. Specific hazard mitigation plans are prepared following a federally declared disaster. They reflect the current risk analysis and mitigation priorities specific to the declared disaster. An alternate and more common term for mitigation is prevention. In the field of emergency services, however, the term prevention is used to refer to stopping an event from happening. Emergency managers point out that while it is possible to prevent terrorist attacks, it is not possible to prevent earthquakes. It is, however, possible to reduce or mitigate their impact.
Preparedness involves the activities undertaken in advance of an emergency, including developing operation capabilities, training, preparing plans, and improving public information and communications systems.
Response is defined as the actions taken to save lives and protect property during an emergency event.
Recovery efforts begin at the onset of an emergency. Recovery is both a short-term activity intended to restore vital life - support systems, and a long-term activity designed to return infrastructure systems to pre- disaster conditions. Recovery also includes cost recovery efforts.
One key factor of emergency management is the formation of plans through which communities reduce exposure to hazards and manage disasters. emergency management does not prevent or eliminate threats or hazards. It focuses on creating plans, best management practices, and standardized operating procedures to decrease the impact of disasters.
Figure 1.3.2 FHWA Graphic
Once threats and hazards have been identified, plans can be written. Plans generally address the areas of:
Operations or response plans address:
An objective of an Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) is to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies impacting transport Infrastructure. One example of an EOP is from Caltifornia’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Caltrans EOP is consistent with various United States federal emergency planning concepts, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Response Framework (NRF), Federal and State Catastrophic Concept of Operations (CONOPS), and (Continuation of Operations/Continuation of Government (COOP/COG) Plans. The Caltrans EOP is centered on the California Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS) and is part of a larger framework that supports emergency management within the state of California. This larger framework is directed by the State of California Emergency Plan, hereinafter referred to as the SEP. The Caltrans EOP has the following purposes:
Another aspect of emergency management that is sometimes overlooked but should be addressed, is human behavior. Human behavior in carrying out the emergency management mission should be addressed. How people actually react and why certain behaviors occur during emergencies should be mitigated in plans. We should accept what does happen and not what we want to believe happens. What we plan, and what people actually do is increasingly different. We should design systems to support what people actually do. 2
Exposure defines the elements and locations of the highway system (roads, bridges, culverts, etc.) that may be exposed to changing conditions caused by climate change, including sea level rise, storm surge, wildfire, landslides, etc. Key indicators for this measure include the value and timing of expected changes (at what year could you expect these conditions to occur). 1
‘According to the United States National Climate Assessment, the number of extremely hot days is projected to continue to increase over much of the United States, especially by late in the century. Summer temperatures are projected to continue rising, and a reduction of soil moisture, which exacerbates heat waves, is projected for much of the western and central US in summer. California’s size and its many highly varied climate zones cause inconsistent temperature rise across the state. The following Figure shows the average maximum temperature change over seven consecutive days within three different time periods compared to data from 1975 to 2004. Caltrans evaluated the minimum and maximum temperature changes because they are important considerations for selecting pavement binder–the “glue” that binds asphalt aggregates. The Figure highlights portions of the State Highway System where the historical pavement binder temperature range is exceeded. Notice that as time goes on, more of the network becomes exposed to high temperatures that could affect pavement conditions.’ 2
Figure 1.3.2.1 Caltrans Graphic
Caltrans vulnerability studies contain similar mapping for statewide precipitation, wildfire, sea level rise, storm surge and cliff retreat.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Identified the implications of extreme weather or climate change on Caltrans assets. Key variables include estimates of cost of damage, and the duration of closure to repair or replace the asset. The consequence of failure from climate change would include such concerns as (among others):
Figure 1.3.2.2.1 Flow Path for Vulnerability Assessment
The New Zealand Transport Agency's list of hazards producing consequences: 2
Figure 1.3.2.2.2 National Resilience Programme Business Case 2020
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) created district Adaptation Priorities Reports that use an indicator-based scoring approach to rank state highway system assets most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. These reports will identify prioritized assets for detailed facility-level study of climate change and adaptation options. Other factors will also affect final prioritization and adaptations, including route criticality, population served, equity considerations, asset useful life, projects underway, funding availability, and cost considerations’ 1
The development of a method to support investment decisions among multiple options prioritizes disaster management that reflects future climate risk, including such considerations as:
By using this approach, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) can capitalize on its internal capabilities to identify projects that increase highway system resiliency.
‘Asset condition is one of the most oft-used surrogates for a resilience metric. The focus of such metrics is on the physical ability of an asset to minimize or forego material disruption or failure. Bridge and asset security resilience metrics are good examples of this (similar indices are found for pavement condition and other asset categories found in a typical transportation agency).’ 2
Figure 1.3.2.3 Perspectives Vary from Deploying State Resilience
Assessing disaster risk for the supply chain (economic resilience) is important and a great way to start assessing resilience of the system through all modes of transportation.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) 21 member economies are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters. Economic costs are caused by the destruction of economic and social infrastructure as well as disruptions to supply chains and the resulting loss of trade revenue.’
Figure 1.3.2.4 APEC Graphic
Supply chains that aren’t agile and cannot rapidly respond to change are often impacted most by disasters, and thus, the associated businesses experience extreme losses. These issues impact both businesses and government, and both can play an active role in mitigating supply chain risks, and thus, reducing losses. Governments can play a supporting role in helping companies cope with unexpected disasters and shocks, which will improve the resiliency of supply chains.
To address this, APEC economies have placed significant emphasis on supporting capacity building efforts to improve the resiliency and robustness of supply chains in the region. In 2013, APEC economies agreed on Seven Principles of Supply Chain Resilience, which provides an overarching framework to support APEC economies to manage and mitigate risks to the supply chain as a result of natural disasters. These principles are to:
Social Infrastructure is a subset of the infrastructure sector and typically includes assets that accommodate social services. We should assess those hazards to the transportation system that impact the support of a community. 1
‘To provide additional clarity around varying social infrastructure/equity impacts due to different strategies, the Spatial Temporal Economical Physiological Social (STEPS) equity framework developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) examines whether social equity barriers are reduced, exacerbated, or both by a particular strategy (Shaheen et al., 2017). The STEPS framework categorizes equity barriers to accessing transportation including considerations across spatial factors that compromise daily travel needs, temporal barriers that inhibit a user from completing time-sensitive trips, economic factors including direct and indirect travel costs, physiological barriers that make using certain travel modes difficult for disabled or older populations, and social factors like language or other barriers that detract from travelers’ comfort with using transportation (Shaheen et al., 2017).
Transportation Barrier/Benefit | Definition |
|---|---|
| Spatial | Spatial factors that compromise daily travel needs (e.g. excessively long distances between destinations, lack of public transit within walking distance). |
| Temporal | Travel time barriers that inhibit a user from completing time-sensitive trips, such as arriving to work (e.g. public transit reliability issues, limited operating hours, traffic congestion). |
| Economic | Direct costs (e.g. fares, tools, vehicle ownership costs) and indirect costs (e.g. smartphone, internet, credit card access) that create economic hardship or preclude users from traveling. Indirect economic effects also include changes in property values, rent, wages and risk of displacement due to transportation infrastructure projects or parking changes. |
| Physiological | Physical and cognitive limitations that make using standard transportation modes difficult or impossible (e.g. infants, older adults and disabled). |
| Social | Social, racial, cultural, safety and language barriers that inhibit a user’s (e.g. women, immigrants, minorities) comfort with using transportation (e.g. neighborhood crime, poorly targeted marketing, lack of multi-language information). |
Countries that have experienced typhoons, torrential rains, and other wind and flood disasters, as well as massive earthquakes and tsunamis, have built "Build Back Better" after each of these past disasters to prevent another disaster from occurring, and have strengthened disaster countermeasures based on this experience.
Over the last few years, the needs of society have evolved rapidly as a result of the diversification of society and population growth. Disaster countermeasures must also change to keep up with these changes.
On the other hand, in order to cope with severe damage caused by increasingly severe weather phenomena and huge earthquakes and tsunamis that could occur at any time, it is necessary to develop technologies related to disaster prevention based on knowledge and technologies developed from past disaster experiences and to incorporate these technologies as quickly as possible.
KIOSK has collected and organized "technologies that contribute to disaster mitigation" that contribute to reducing damage to prevent the latest disasters so that it can better support the planning of disaster countermeasures in response to changes in society and recent disaster situations. It is expected that other disaster prevention measures will evolve and intensify with the use of these technologies.
KIOSK collects and organizes basic technologies from all fields that contribute to the advancement and efficiency of disaster management.
As these basic technologies are applied in practice, it is expected that disaster response from the perspective of road users will be deepened in all phases of road disaster management.
Figure 1.4.1 Roads that protect people’s lives and property from disasters (2020, “2040 Vision for Roads in Japan in 2040”, MLIT, Japan)
KIOSK collects and organizes basic technologies from all fields that contribute to Planning and Management.
The way of Planning and Management depends on the geology, ground condition, existence of natural disasters such as earthquake, flooding, landslide, etc.
Road managers should introduce the technologies properly. However, if the proper technologies were selected, it would be expected to contribute to Planning and Management.
Various technologies are described here.
In order to consider disaster management, the first step is to quantitatively evaluate and understand, as much as possible, where the vulnerabilities are and how much damage will occur in the event of a disaster.
This section introduces effective techniques for understanding disaster vulnerability.
Visualizing the risks at one glance is essential for every stakeholder in that region. 3D modeling, hazard maps, simulation and interpretation are key technologies for visualizing the risks.
KIOSK collects and organizes basic technologies from all fields that contribute to Survey and Analysis.
Generally, the damage of roads is caused by earthquake, landslide, flooding, and debris flow, etc.
Landslides, flooding, and debris flow are caused by heavy rainfall; therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to changes in rainfall due to climate change.
Various surveys and analysis are required to evaluate the condition of the site quantitatively and objectively.
Road managers should apply suitable Survey and Analysis technologies for planning suitable measures and construction.
Figure 1.4.3 Example of survey and analytics of slope failure
Landslides, debris flows, and flooding are generally caused by heavy rainfall. Therefore, it is important for road managers to observe rainfall along the road in real time.
For this purpose, it is necessary to establish a system that conducts local meteorological and rainfall observations to inform road managers.
In addition, it is also necessary to combine with a system that alerts when the observed data exceeds a certain threshold level so that road managers can quickly make decisions such as traffic regulations.
Slope risks depend on the geography and geology. Geographical, geological and geotechnical survey, simulation and monitoring is necessary for mapping the location where the risks exist and assess the hazards.
During and after construction, periodical monitoring of the road and slope along the road is essential for the road management.
Earthquakes generally occur along active faults. In addition, it must be considered that disasters due to tsunami and liquefaction may occur in coastal areas and soft ground areas. Therefore, the assessment of the earthquake hazards should be carried out based on the knowledge of earth science. And combining with earthquake observation networks, and simulations of seismic intensity and tsunami height, we can estimate earthquakes, tsunamis, and liquefaction hazards that may occur in the future.
Natural disasters are mainly caused by earthquakes and heavy rains. But there might be a possibility that disaster factors other than earthquakes and heavy rains might cause hazards.
In this section, other disaster factors, which are not described in 1.4.3.1 – 1.4.3.3, are described.
KIOSK collects and organizes basic technologies from all fields that contribute to Measures and Construction.
To construct roads that are resistant to natural disasters, it is necessary to carry out proper construction works based on appropriate design. At the same time, there is a demand for considering not to damage the landscape when designing and constructing.
It is also important to continuously monitor the condition of the built roads, during the construction, to keep the safety and manage the construction works.
Various technologies are described here, but it is expected to implement the suitable Measures and Construction.
Figure 1.4.4 Example of slope collapse prevention construction
Embankment is a man-made structure. Unlike natural ground that has been formed over a long period of time, man-made structure is constructed in a short period of time. Generally, its strength and toughness are weaker than natural ground. Therefore, it is needed to apply enough compaction to the soil or/and apply a soil improvement to construct the embankment, which has enough strength and toughness.
In this section, ground improvement related technologies are described here.
When a road is constructed along a slope, it is required that suitable measures are taken to prevent the slope failure. And recently, there are many cases where greening work, which takes into consideration the environment, is also combined with current slope failure prevention works. With the recent development of sensor technology and robot technology, early warning systems and robotic construction work techniques are developed that enable them to conduct construction works more safely.
When a road is constructed along a rock fall area, it is required that suitable measures are taken to prevent the rock fall. With the recent development of sensor technology combined with numerical analysis techniques, monitoring techniques and early warning systems are updated. That enables road managers to conduct measures and construction works more effectively.
Generally, debris flow suddenly attacks a road and it is difficult to predict its occurrence. Therefore, both detecting and protecting technologies should be implemented at the location where there is a high debris flow risk. The key is to detect the debris flow in real time and transmit the data or alert as quickly as possible to road administrators or directly to personnel who drive cars. Also, debris barriers are effective facilities for protecting roads.
There are two targets to which an enhancing earthquake resistance technique should be applied. The first one is to improve the earthquake resistance of the structure itself, and the second one is to improve the earthquake resistance of the ground where the structure is constructed. The important thing is to check that these earthquake-resistant construction techniques are properly applied. For checking them, inspections and diagnostics are required to be carried out during and after the construction works.
Soft ground related technologies are mainly consisting of ground improvement technologies. In urban area, there are many obstacles underground. To keep the safety and effectiveness of the construction, several ground improvement technologies which include control drilling techniques or newly developed equipments are developed.
There are two aspects for emergency measures. One is the early warning before disasters occur. And the second one is a quick survey of the damage caused by disasters. For this purpose, many early warning systems and monitoring systems have been developed. Since it is necessary to investigate huge areas in a short time, non-destructive testing methods and robot-based technologies have been implemented.
KIOSK collects and organizes basic technologies from all fields that contribute to Maintenance.
For maintaining roads, it is important to monitor the changes quantitatively that have occurred not only in the road itself, but also in the surrounding ground and slopes.
Monitoring data will be essential for establishing the proper maintenance planning.
In addition, it is necessary to have a warning system such as for traffic restriction in case of emergency.
For this purpose, monitoring technology is important, and many monitoring methods are described in the content here.
Figure 1.4.5 Example of road surface monitor
Since, the total length of the road is long, road maintenance is generally expensive and time-consuming matters. Because of the limited budget for maintenance, it is essential to identify severely damaged areas of the road to determine the priority zone for the maintenance when making the maintenance plan.
For evaluating the road surface and roadbed condition various inspection and diagnosing techniques have been developed.
As the inspections and diagnoses are carried out regularly, acquired data should be accumulated in a database or cloud-based data storage system. This is important for maintenance for the long term.
The bridge consists mainly of iron and concrete. In the case of bridges where those are constructed along coastal areas, it is necessary to take into account chemical erosion of the materials due to chloride damage.
By observing the presence of cracks on the bridge structure, chemical analysis of the material, stresses which apply on the structure, etc. the bridge can be quantitatively assessed.
Recently BIM is utilized for construction works, these data are expected to be reflected in BIM. Then the maintenance planning and works would be performed effectively.
Tunnel is mainly constructed in mountainous area and underground in urbanized areas. Since, the surrounding geology varies from hard rock to soft soil, the design of the tunnel is varied.
But in any case, a tunnel should have enough strength against underground pressure or dynamic forces caused by earthquakes.
In addition, in case of fire caused by a traffic accident, fireproof measures should also be considered.
Slope measures aim to stabilize the slope itself to prevent the failure of the slope. To achieve this, monitoring is quite essential to grasp the condition of the slope.
Many monitoring technologies could be applied for slope. Since the observed area is wide, a huge volume of the observed data should be interpreted in real time. The interpretation using AI technologies would be next generation techniques for the future.
Since, the total length of the road is long, road maintenance is generally expensive and time-consuming matters. Because of the limited budget for maintenance, it is important to identify the location and condition of the road structure where it is severely damaged.
For evaluating the road structure, inspection and diagnosing techniques have been developed.
These techniques are effective for maintenance work for the long term.