All Climate Events

Tuesday, October 1, 2019. 12:00PM. Webinar: Designing Port Infrastructure for Sea Level Change: A Survey of Engineer. Ben Sweeney, New Hampshire Coastal Program. Sponsored by NOAA’s National Ocean Service Science Seminar. More information here. 

Seaports are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their coastal location. Engineers play a pivotal role in improving the resilience of ports, as they are responsible for designing port infrastructure that will be adequately prepared for future sea level change (SLC). However, incorporating SLC is a challenging task due to the uncertainty of SLC projections and the long service lives of port infrastructure. Through an online survey of 85 U.S. port and marine infrastructure engineers, this research explores the engineering community's attitude and approach to planning for SLC for large-scale maritime infrastructure projects. Survey findings highlight that only 29% of respondents indicated that their organization had an internal policy or planning document that communicates how to design for SLC. Furthermore, results show the lack of regulatory design standards in this area leads to engineers and their clients disregarding SLC more frequently. There is a clear need for collaboration among engineers, port authorities, and policy makers to develop practical design methods for designing resilient port infrastructure.