TRANSPORTATION RESILIENCY PLANNING INITIATIVE - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

The Transportation Resiliency Planning Initiative aims to develop a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure in Washington State’s largest National Parks.

This work will be conducted by collecting available Park facilities and resource data, analyzing downscaled climate prediction data, and developing strategies to adapt to anticipated future conditions.

Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks offer ideal natural laboratories at which to explore emerging climate adaptation planning and infrastructural resiliency opportunities. Many roads that provide critical public and administrative access to these Parks are located in turbulent river valleys and as a result, are exposed to associated hazards, including river avulsion, debris flows, and severe flooding. These destructive phenomena are strongly correlated with glacial activity and precipitation patterns; processes which themselves are heavily impacted by global climate change. Long-term infrastructural investment decisions should therefore be made with serious consideration of the dynamic, hazardous nature of these climate-sensitive corridors.

The strategies generated from this initiative will address specific Park challenges and inform a framework for infrastructural adaptation across public land management agencies.