Abstract
Seaports are particularly vulnerable to coastal hazards such as hurricanes and flooding due to their location. Sea level change (SLC) can magnify the impacts of these coastal hazards, threatening the resilience of ports. Engineers must design port infrastructure that is adequately prepared for the amount of SLC expected within the design life of the structure. However, the uncertainty of SLC projections coupled with the long service lives of port infrastructure presents unique challenges to do so. Through an online survey of 85 US port and maritime infrastructure engineers, this research reflects the US engineering community's attitude and approach to planning for SLC for maritime infrastructure projects. Only 29% of respondents indicated that their organization had an internal SLC policy, design, or planning document. Furthermore, results show that 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 stakeholders to develop practical design methods for designing resilient port infrastructure.
Highlights
Sea level rise increases risks to wharves, docks, piers, and other maritime infrastructure (Asariotis and Benamara 2012)
In what capacity are port infrastructure designers incorporating a Sea level change (SLC) projection into their design specifications for large-scale port engineering projects? This overarching question aimed to identify the current level at which engineers consider SLC and to produce baseline data to track how the state of the practice changes in the future
Engineers must consider SLC and other coastal hazard impacts when designing port infrastructure to ensure that ports can continue to serve their essential role in the global economy in the coming decades
Summary
Sea level rise increases risks to wharves, docks, piers, and other maritime infrastructure (Asariotis and Benamara 2012). As sea level rises (NRC 2012; Parris et al 2012; IPCC 2013), port engineers will need to design more resilient structures that considers SLC projections (Esteban et al 2013; Becker et al 2015). The U.S has no standard nationwide guidance for how to incorporate SLC projections into design (Toilliez 2018). This leaves engineers to make subjective decisions based on inconsistent guidance and information. SLC threatens U.S maritime infrastructure Temperature records from 1850-2016 provide evidence of a long-term global warming trend (WMO 2018). While SLC uncertainty over the few decades (2030-2060) is relatively minor, uncertainty increases substantially around 2080 (Church et al 2013) and should be appropriately and transparently accounted for in planning and design (Stephens et al 2017) in order to avoid an underestimation of flood risks (Ruckert et al 2017)
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