How Does Transportation Affect Climate Change – The National Climate Assessment summarizes the current and future impacts of climate change on the United States.
Led by a 60-member federal advisory committee, a panel of more than 300 experts conducted an extensive review of the report, including a panel from the public, federal agencies, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Contents
- 1 How Does Transportation Affect Climate Change
- 2 An Interdisciplinary Investigation Into The Linkages Between Transport, The Environment, Climate Change, Hydrology, Agriculture And Food Security In The Rural Letaba District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
- 3 To Tackle Climate Change We Need To Rethink Our Food System
How Does Transportation Affect Climate Change
Sea-level rise, hurricanes, and extreme weather events affect the reliability and capacity of America’s transportation systems. Coastal infrastructure faces particular risks. Extreme weather events affect the transport network.
An Interdisciplinary Investigation Into The Linkages Between Transport, The Environment, Climate Change, Hydrology, Agriculture And Food Security In The Rural Letaba District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
Conference lead author Henry J. Schwartz, HJS Consulting, LLC Michael Meyer, Parsons Brinkerhof Lead Author Cynthia J. Burbank, Parsons Brinkerhof Michael Koby, Arizona State University Clinton Oster, Indiana University John Posey, EastWest Gateway Government Council Edmund J. Russo, U. S Army Corps of Engineers Arthur Rapinski, US Department of Transportation
The U.S. economy depends on the nation’s transportation system’s ability to transport people and goods. Critical products and services such as energy, food, manufacturing, and commerce are interdependent on the reliable operation of these transportation components. Therefore, delays in the transportation system can cause significant economic and personal losses.
The national transportation system consists of four main components that are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
In addition to being affected by climate change, the transportation system also contributes to climate change through emissions. In 2010, the US transportation sector accounted for 27 percent of total US greenhouse gas emissions, with cars and trucks accounting for 65 percent of the total.
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This means that policy and behavioral changes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions will have a significant impact on different parts of the transport sector.
Transportation systems are already feeling the costly effects of climate change. Many inland states, including Vermont, Tennessee, Iowa and Missouri, have been devastated by heavy rains, freezes and floods over the past three years, destroying roads, bridges and rail systems and the vehicles that use them. Over the next decade, all regions and modes of transportation will be affected by rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and changes in precipitation. Concentrated transport effects are possible along Alaska and the coast.
Climate trends affect the design of transportation infrastructure, which is expensive and designed for the long term (typically 50-100 years). In 2010, US auto sales were worth $4.1 trillion.
As climate conditions change, parts of this infrastructure will become more exposed to climate stress, reducing the reliability and capacity of the transportation system.
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The transportation system suffers from disruptions in fuel and electricity supply, as well as communication disruptions, which are often caused by weather conditions.
For example, power outages caused by Hurricane Katrina shut down three major oil pipelines for two days, leaving the system at reduced capacity for two weeks.
Climate change will affect transportation systems indirectly through disruptions in infrastructure, trade flows, agriculture, energy use, and changes in payment patterns. For example, if corn production moves northward in response to warming, U.S. agricultural production may flow through different routes to markets of different origins.
Policy measures and technological changes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by affecting fuel types, transportation of energy supplies (pipelines, coal trains, etc.) and transportation costs for freight and passengers have a significant impact. can
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In the coming decades, demographic trends, changes in land use patterns, and advances in transportation technology will have profound effects on the operation, design, and spatial extent of a nation’s transportation system. As transportation officials shape future transportation systems to meet new demands, future climate conditions should be considered as part of the planning and decision-making process.
Constraints in transportation system capacity and reliability can be partially overcome through adaptation. For a network, the transport system can use alternate routes around damaged elements or divert traffic to unknown routes. Other adaptation measures include designing new infrastructure for future climates, asset management programs, protecting at-risk assets, operational changes, and removing/relocating infrastructure assets that are too expensive to protect.
As new and renovated transportation systems are built, climate change impacts must be regularly incorporated into the planning of these systems.
Adapting the transport system to climate change will be difficult, especially in the context of the projected growth of the transport sector. In 2007, the National Maritime Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission reported the following average annual growth rates: truck annual average 2.1% tonnage growth, rail 1.9%, water transportation 1.2%, and passenger annual average mileage. increase 1.82% by 2035 and 1.72% by 2055.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Sea-level rise, hurricanes, extreme weather events, high temperatures, heat waves, changes in precipitation, Arctic warming, and other climate impacts are affecting the reliability and capacity of the U.S. transportation system in many ways.
In developing key messages, the group’s writing team participated in several technical discussions via teleconference from January to May 2012. Technical input reports (21) on a wide range of topics were received and reviewed as part of a request for public comment in the Federal Register notice. The author team’s review includes the key technical input report for the National Climate Assessment, Climate Impacts and Transportation in the United States.
Other published literature and professional judgment were also considered in developing the key messages of the chapter. The chapter authoring team met in April 2012 in St. Louis, MO, to conduct expert discussions and finalize key messages.
Climate impacts such as sea level rise, changes in the frequency of extreme weather events, heat waves, changes in precipitation, Arctic warming and other climate conditions, Ch. 2: Our changing climate in this report.
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Seasonality can be defined as the frequency distribution of weather. Current weather conditions, floods and hurricanes are clearly affecting America’s transportation system. By altering the frequency of these weather conditions, climate change will undoubtedly affect the reliability and capacity of America’s transportation system. This view is supported by several studies of the effects of weather and climate change on specific transportation systems or specific regions.
A 2008 NRC commissioned document addressed the specific impacts of climate change on various infrastructures, including potential future disruptions to infrastructure.
The effects of thermal and other climatic effects on railway systems are described in Hodges 2011 and Rossetti 2002.
The CCSP 2008 assesses the future impacts of sea level rise and other climate impacts on the Gulf Coast transportation system.
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Climate change impacts on New York State, including the transportation system, Rosenzweig et al. 2011.
See also CCSP 2009 SAP 4.1, Ch. 7.
In addition, the main message and supporting text summarize the broad evidence presented in the Climate Impacts and US Transportation section.
Additional articles discuss how Arctic warming is affecting Alaska’s transportation infrastructure today, and plans to allow the Northwest Passage to be opened seasonally for cargo shipping.
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Recent changes in global sea level rise estimates documented in this report (Chapter 2: Our Changing Climate, Key Message 10) are not reflected in studies of coastal areas. In addition, recent USGS research has included some studies on sea level rise, wave action, and local geologic interactions.
Accurate assessment of climate change impacts on transport is highly sensitive to regional estimates of climate change, particularly the magnitude, timing, and type of predicted precipitation. Therefore, the new (CMIP5-based) regional climate projections will be heavily influenced by specific estimates of climate change impacts on transport. Transport planning presents particular challenges in the face of uncertainty about climate impacts at the regional level.
The impact of climate on the operation of transportation systems, such as the safety and capacity of road systems and air traffic, has so far been little studied.
Future characteristics of society, such as land use patterns, demographics, use of information technology to change transportation methods, and potential changes in the nature of future transportation systems, assessment of climate impacts on the country’s transportation network create uncertainty. These social changes will happen gradually, but allow the transportation system to adapt. Adaptation can reduce impacts on the transport sector; However, assessment of adaptation costs and strategies for the transport sector is still in its early stages.
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Given current climate predictions, particularly sea level rise and extreme weather events, there is high confidence that the transportation system will be affected by climate change.
Unclear evidence (such as limited sources, excess, conflicting results, poor documentation and/or untested methods), disagreement and lack of expert opinion.
Global climate change is the result of both gradual and extreme events. A gradually warming climate will accelerate the deterioration of asphalt and damage the pavement and sand.
Runoff, based on increasingly frequent and heavy rainfall rather than snowmelt, increases the likelihood of damage to fast-flowing river bridges.
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However, if there is less snow in some areas, the cost of snow removal will be reduced and the construction period will be extended. Changes in agricultural production patterns will require changes in transportation routes and methods.
Climate models project that extreme temperatures and heat waves will become more intense, longer and more frequent (Chapter 2:
