addressing climate change adaptation in regional transportation plans

State-of-the-Practice Climate Change Adaptation Activities for California MPOs and RTPAsAppendixoperations. The Impacts of Sea Level Rise on the California Coast (Heberger et al.,2009) predicted that 2,500 miles of roads and rail will be affected by the year2100. Flooding can damage infrastructure such as tunnels, highways along thecoast, runways, and railways. Three airports in the San Francisco Bay area – SanFrancisco, Oakland, and San Jose – are all near sea level and based onprojections, will need to be relocated and protected from climate change eventsin order to remain functional. Damage to sea ports from sea level rise will havenegative economic effects as California’s seaports handle 40% of the country’sshipping volume. Moving the ports or implementing other protective measureswill be costly as well.Caltrans Guidance on Incorporating Sea Level RiseCaltrans produced Guidance on Incorporating Sea Level Rise (2011) for its planningstaff to help determine if sea level rise should be addressed in a particular projectand if so, how to incorporate it. It guides planners and project managers througha two-step process: the first step is to determine if the project will be affected bysea level rise; the second step balances sea level rise impacts with consequencesto the transportation system to determine if adaptation measures should beincluded in the project. This guidance document is intended to be updated asresearch on this emerging topic of climate change adaptation is released.Highlights of the guidance include a table of screening criteria that can be usedto determine whether or not adaptive measures are needed and the amount ofadditional funding needed to mitigate the risks. After consideration of allcriteria, the project manager would determine whether or not a project needs toincorporate sea level rise. If so, one should determine the expected magnitude ofthe impact and how to address impact by assessing alternatives.This document is especially relevant to transportation planning agencies inCalifornia because research has shown that future projected sea level risepresents a major threat to transportation infrastructure. EO S-13-08, signed in2008, mandates that state agencies planning projects in vulnerable areas considervarious sea level rise scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100. This providesguidance specific to California as well.The Impacts of Sea Level Rise on the California CoastSea level has risen over the past 100 years and projections indicate that it willcontinue to rise. The Impacts of Sea Level Rise on the California Coast (Hebergeret al., 2009) projects what will happen if no actions are taken to address sea levelrise, with a focus on population, infrastructure and property. The State ofCalifornia created the climate change scenario for this report based onInternational Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios that assumed mediumto high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the IPCC’s worst casescenario for sea level rise was not selected. The overarching finding is that thecoast will be affected dramatically by sea level rise.B-6 Cambridge Systematics, Inc.