NEWS
Vanessa Anderson (MMA 2018) Presents Green Ports Research to Providence Harbor Commission
Austin Becker / Becker Group News, NEWS /
Vanessa Anderson (MMA 2018) presented her research on ‘Green Ports’ to the Harbor Management Commission (HMC) at Providence City Hall on Wednesday, February 7th. The Harbor Management Commission enforces provisions of the Harbor Management plan for the City of Providence and serves as the regulatory body for the Port of Providence. The ‘Green Port Initiatives: A Review of Best Practices for the Port of Providence’ report was completed at the request of the HMC as the city and port are looking towards green initiatives to serve as a basis for economic development. Vanessa worked on the project as her MMA major paper, under the supervision of Prof. Austin Becker.
Becker and Mclean publish on Cost and Materials Required to Retrofit US Seaports in Response to Sea Level Rise: A Thought Exercise for Climate Response
Austin Becker / NEWS /
Available free (open access) at this link: http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/5/3/44
Cost and Materials Required to Retrofit US Seaports in Response to Sea Level Rise: A Thought Exercise for Climate Response
Climate changes projected for 2100 and beyond could result in a worldwide race for adaptation resources on a scale never seen before. This paper describes a model for estimating the cost and materials of elevating coastal seaport infrastructure in the United States to prevent damage from sea level rise associated with climate change. This study pilots the use of a generic port model (GenPort) as a basis from which to estimate regional materials and monetary demands, resulting in projections that would be infeasible to calculate on an individual port-by-port basis. We estimate the combined cost of adding two meters of additional fill material to elevate the working surface and then reconstructing the generic port. We use the resulting unit area cost to develop an estimate to elevate and retrofit 100 major United States commercial coastal ports. A total of $57 billion to $78 billion (2012 US dollars) and 704 million cubic meters of fill would be required to elevate the 100 ports by two meters and to reconstruct associated infrastructure. This estimation method and the results serve as a thought exercise to provoke considerations of the cumulative monetary and material demands of widespread adaptations of seaport infrastructure. The model can be adapted for use in multiple infrastructure sectors and coastal managers can use the outlined considerations as a basis for individual port adaptation strategy assessments. View Full-Text
URI Team Assists with RIEMA Hurricane Exercise
Austin Becker / Becker Group News, NEWS /
As tropical depression Cindy made land fall in Louisiana last week, Rhode Island emergency managers (EM’s) ran a training exercise using a powerful, fictitious storm called “Hurricane Rhody”. The storm was created by Isaac Ginis, Chris Kincaid, and David Ullman of URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and was based on historical data from Hurricane Carol of 1954 and Hurricane Ester from 1961. Peter Stempel (PhD 2018) of URI’s Marine Affairs Visualization Lab created 3D visualizations of the storm’s impacts to Rhode Island and Bobby Witkop (MAMA 2018) provided data through expert elicitation of facility managers.
As the fictitious storm made its way up the Atlantic seaboard, 120 Rhode Island EM’s braced for impact during the four day Federal Emergency Management Agency lead training. The training culminated with the real time emergency response exercise to Rhody. Emergency managers at the state and federal level manned their stations at Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency’s (RIEMA’s) headquarters in Cranston while local emergency managers worked from their respective emergency operations centers in Coventry, Westerly, Pawtucket, and Providence. These teams dealt with dozens of hazards triggered by the storm including the flooding of Gainer Dam, the overtopping of Fox Point Barrier, and generator failures at multiple hospitals. RIEMA’s training simulation lead, Stephen Conard, had this to say about the simulation, “It was a tough scenario. Hurricane Rhody presented many challenges that Rhode Island EMs have never faced including hazards from tornados and unprecedented storm surge inundation. However, our team successfully worked through the associated critical transportation, public information and warning issues throughout the gameplay.” As the 2017 hurricane season gets underway, Rhode island’s emergency manager’s will be more prepared because of this joint effort with URI.
Dr. Becker and Bobby Witkop (MAMA 2018) attend workshops on “Climate change impacts on coastal transport infrastructure in the Caribbean: Enhancing the adaptive capacity of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”
Austin Becker / Becker Group News, NEWS /
In June, Dr. Becker participated in a UN Development Account project on “Climate change impacts on coastal transport infrastructure in the Caribbean: Enhancing the adaptive capacity of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”, which is being implemented by UNCTAD and also benefits from collaboration with UNEP, UNECLAC and UNDP. He spent three days in St. Lucia and three days in Jamaica. MAF Masters student Bobby Witkop (S 2018) joined the team for the Jamaica session.
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of policy makers, transport planners and transport infrastructure managers in SIDS to (a) understand climate change impacts on coastal transport infrastructure – in particular seaports and airports – and (b) take appropriate adaptation response measures. As part of the project, case-studies focusing on two vulnerable SIDS in the Caribbean region, namely Jamaica and St. Lucia, were carried out to enhance the knowledge and understanding at the national level and to develop a transferable methodology for assessing climate-related impacts and adaptation options. The project also envisages capacity-building workshops for stakeholders at the national and regional level.
Training and presentations were provided by the UNCTAD project team, international and national consultants, as well as some invited experts who have also agreed to act as resource persons throughout. The workshop format allowed participants to discuss opportunities and barriers to adopting climate-resilient practices in both countries. Discussion focused primarily on the desire to have additional trainings and on the lack of data available for analysis. Participants from the Meteorological Office and the Airport Service indicated that they were concerned about the climate change issues discussed, but unless more specific information were available, it would be difficult for them to take any real actions. They cited local sea level rise projections, high-resolution elevation and bathymetery, and more accurate hurricane predictions as pressing needs. In Jamaica, participants representing the two major airports, the container terminal, and the cruise ship terminal, along with government and academic representatives conducted a “sensitivity thresholds” exercise for these facilities. Jamaica has devoted considerable resources to adaptation planning, with broad guidance issued by the national government that includes emphasis on the importance of building resilience for transport infrastructure. Environmental managers, engineers, and managers detailed specific areas of concern and a strong desire to develop and implement resilience strategies.