Photo: Arup
Photo: Arup
of its intended lifecycle. The Flexible Adaptation Pathways approach supplies options for making infrastructure investments that are flexible, to better stand the test of time and avoid potential regrets. Flexibility is an ideal planning parameter that is paramount in climate change adaptation. “Superstorm Sandy was a wakeup call for New York City,” says Lee. “We’ve started to see a fundamental shift in the way cities are addressing climate change adaptation.” With the uncertainty of the potential effects of climate change, investing in a plan that can be eas- ily adapted provides the greatest potential for success. “There is an ethos in adaptation planning that embraces the process rather than the outcome,” notes Hogan. The Flexible Adaptation Pathways method ad - dresses continuing adaptation plans by monitoring decisions outcomes and growing or altering options as new challenges arise. “Last summer, Hurricane Henri came through New York City and broke the rainfall record in New York City, and then Hurricane Ida hit a couple weeks later and broke Henri’s record,” says Lee. “It’s not just people living near the floodplain, Ida exposed aging and undersized infrastructure that was designed for a different climate.” The Flexible Adaptation Pathways method allows for a response strategy to better react to un - expected challenges that may arise in the future.
Overall, proactive planning against sea level rise and other threats posed by climate change provides a much better response strategy than reactive planning. Arup aims to supply infrastructure planners with the toolkit they need to defend their cities from sea level rise. Hopefully, this will ignite a fundamental shift in the way cities across the world address climate change adaptation, as there is much more to protect cities from than just sea level rise. Sea level rise is just one example of the effects that climate change will have on our world, and since it's not a question of if, but when, we need to have all the tools necessary to adapt to any and all threats.
LIZA MORICONI is an intern for Civil + Structural Engineer Media, as well as a senior Civil Engineering student at the University of Arkansas. She can be reached at lmoriconi@zweiggroup.com.
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april 2022 csengineermag.com
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