Overview: This project integrates a resilience focus into the ProvPort’s Master Planning initiative by engaging infrastructure and community stakeholders to gain insights into sea level rise and storm risks. Due to the area’s vulnerability to natural hazards, the Master Plan focuses on current and future resilience. 

The project utilizes the Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework (IRPF) developed by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Incorporating IRPF programs will ensure that the port master plan takes a comprehensive approach to natural hazard resilience, with a particular emphasis on critical infrastructure systems and their interdependencies. 

Background: The City of Providence, ProvPort, and Waterson Terminal Services are collaborating on the development of a ProvPort Master Plan for 2024-2025. Guided by the consulting firm GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., the plan will focus on properties owned by ProvPort and potential land acquisitions over the next decade. Concurrently, the University of Rhode Island (URI) is incorporating IRPF principles into the planning process. 

The IRPF offers a method and toolbox for local areas, regions, and the private sector to collaborate in preparing for the security and resilience of critical infrastructure services in response to climate threats and changes. 

Project Goals: 

• Integrate resources from the IRPF with the ProvPort Master Plan process to enhance resilience planning.  
• Develop a robust understanding of the risks of natural hazards for the Port of Providence, including the Providence and East Providence shoreline and the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.  
• Deliver customized risk assessments to participating infrastructure businesses within the study area of a 500-year flood plain + 100-meter buffer.  
• Identify infrastructure security and resilience considerations, including the impacts of dependencies and cascading disruptions, for application to planning and investment decisions. 

Deliverables: This project expands key aspects of port planning; risk assessment and stakeholder engagement. This process builds upon the Rhode Island Municipal Resilience Planning (MRP) program, which engages a broad group of stakeholders in workshops. The outcome is an important contribution to CISA’s IRPF initiative through a real-world case study that incorporates the framework directly into a decision-making process. 

Project Contacts:  Dr. Austin Becker, URI Department of Marine Affairs | abecker@uri.edu 

Casey Tremper, Outreach & Engagement, URI Coastal Resources Center | casey_tremper@uri.edu