By Casey Kramer

Hydraulic engineers across the nation are being asked to account for global climate change within the hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) design practice.  Current H&H design procedures typically rely on use of historical data that are assumed to represent a stationary process.  A changing climate, however, introduces non-stationary risks such as sea level and temperature rise, and changes in timing and distribution of precipitation, snowpack, and snowmelt. Failure to account for such non-stationary risks may compromise the operational characteristics of existing and future transportation infrastructure.  

To assist in developing new methods and guidelines to account for the non-stationary aspects of a changing climate, the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering is currently funding a research project focused on Applying Climate Change Information to Hydrologic and Hydraulic Design of Transportation Infrastructure (NCHRP Project 15-61).  The project panel and research team is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of climate change scientists, hydrologists, hydraulic engineers, and coastal engineers to research how to integrate climate change factors into the H&H design practice.

The overall objective of this research is to develop a design guide of national scope which will provide hydraulic engineers the tools necessary to amend the current H&H practice to account for climate change. The research will also assist hydraulic engineers in justifying when climate change may not be warranted for a given project.
The project panel has selected a contractor which will start work in the upcoming couple months.  This project has a 24-month duration and therefore should be complete by 2019.  Feel free to email me with any questions regarding the research.