Resilience and Vulnerability Rising temperatures, intensifying precipitation events, and rising sea levels are threats to infrastructure in the Tampa Bay region resulting from climate change. Many areas are considering how best to plan for these issues and integrate them into the decision-making process regarding major transportation investments. For example, the “Resilient Tampa Bay” initiative, funded through a grant from the Federal Highway Administration, is one of eleven pilot projects around the country that is exploring ways to adapt existing infrastructure to extreme weather. The project is being conducted by the Tri-County TMA (Transportation Management Area) comprised of the metropolitan planning organizations for Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco, as well as FDOT, and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. The objective of the project is to provide adaptation strategies or projects for inclusion in the MPO long range transportation plans (Cambridge Systematics, 2020). The project is identifying and categorizing links in the network that are most vulnerable to storm surge, heavy rain, and other threats from a structural perspective using a decision matrix (Figure 44). Adaptation and mitigation strategies that are being proposed include methods such as strengthening stormwater systems, hardening a causeway, or in extreme cases, elevating roads. Staff indicate that the initiative is still early in the process and does not go much further than identifying critical and vulnerable links. This information could be integrated into the future corridor plan to guide right-of-way and investment decisions, as well as land development along the impacted corridors, as discussed in Chapter 6.
Figure 44. Composite analysis of vulnerability and criticality. Source: Cambridge Systematics. (2020) Technical Memorandum Resilient Tampa Bay: Transportation Pilot Program Project. Network Spacing and Resilience A thoroughfare network with many alternative paths is more resilient to changes in traffic. Redundancy in the network reduces vehicle-miles of travel, improves emergency response times, and provides alternatives to major arterials for short trips. Regularly spaced thoroughfares also allow reduced cross-
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