Project-Level Climate Adaptation Strategies for Transportation in the SACOG Region

In 2015 SACOG and CivicSpark authored the Sacramento Region Transportation Climate Adaptation Plan. This plan broadly outlines key strategies and actions that the region can take to ensure its transportation assets are resilient to extreme weather events. This plan identifies high-level risks to the Sacramento region (e.g. precipitation, flooding, wildfires, landslides, extreme heat) and provides a general assessment of how transportation assets in the region (e.g. roadways, active transportation, public transit, rail, bridges) may be vulnerable to these risks. The plan also defines a variety policy and planning actions to improve resiliency of transportation assets. This project expands upon the 2015 Climate Adaptation Plan and advance transportation-related climate adaptation planning in the region. Work on this grant started in January 2018 and will include an in-depth analysis of transportation assets that are found to be vulnerable to climate change and critical to the region’s transportation network. Building on a review of state and federal climate adaptation guidance, this project will identify planning- and engineering-level adaptation strategies to avoid potential climate impacts on the transportation network. These strategies will be analyzed for their costs and benefits. Recommended adaptation strategies will be incorporated into a guidance document for a variety of transportation project types. This guidance document will inform policies in the MTP/SCS and future funding rounds.