{"id":8014,"date":"2015-05-01T08:55:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T08:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=8014"},"modified":"2015-05-02T01:59:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T01:59:59","slug":"local-civil-engineers-explore-ways-to-protect-infrastructure-from-climate-change-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=8014","title":{"rendered":"Local Civil Engineers Explore Ways to Protect Infrastructure from Climate Change Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many ulcers I get in a matter of hours when there\u2019s a possibility I could lose 30 pump stations in one event,\u201d said Timothy Steinberger, the former director of Honolulu\u2019s Department of Environmental Services.<\/p>\n

The cause of Steinberger\u2019s ulcers was the city\u2019s wastewater system, much of which is located along coastlines or in areas vulnerable to flooding.<\/p>\n

With climate change and associated sea level rise, some of O`ahu\u2019s most critical infrastructure \u2014Honolulu harbor, the Honolulu International Airport, sewage treatment plants and pumping stations, and electrical and transportation systems \u2014are vulnerable to flooding.<\/p>\n

A recent modeling study by University of Hawai`i scientists on the combined threat of a 1-meter rise in sea level and tsunami or hurricane inundation found that $34.8 billion, or 80 percent, of the economy located along Honolulu\u2019s urban core may be affected by the combined hazard.<\/p>\n

At a one-day infrastructure sustainability seminar in downtown Honolulu last month, dozens of local engineers discussed the need to design projects to weather the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

The seminar, sponsored by the Hawai`i chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and local law firm Carlsmith Ball, LLP, featured panel discussions with local engineers and planners, including Steinberger, and a series of talks by William Wallace, co-creator of the Envision rating system, which, similar to LEED, is aimed at producing sustainable projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things that are happening that are pretty scary,\u201dWallace said. Along with anticipated changes in storm intensity and temperature, new engineering solutions will be needed as\u00a0 engineers become less able to trust the \u201cbody of knowledge of how things have historically operated,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

Although researchers globally have been trying to characterize anticipated, local impacts of climate change, Wallace stressed that infrastructure projects must account for unforeseen conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be tipping points beyond which we don’t know what is going to happen,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

Contingency Planning<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Whether the concern is temperature change or sea level rise, engineers have three ways they can incorporate sustainability into a project, Wallace said. They can: 1) design it to be more robust to account for unusual or extreme circumstances; 2) identify an adaptation strategy so that when conditions change beyond a certain point, \u201cwe\u2019ll adapt to another level;\u201d and 3) design so that if the project is, for example, damaged by a storm, operations can recover quickly.<\/p>\n

As an example, he described efforts by city of Olympia, Washington, to design a suite of engineering solutions to be incrementally implemented as sea levels rise. They include tide gates, various kinds of barriers, outfalls, and pump stations, among other things.<\/p>\n

Like Honolulu, much of Olympia\u2019s critical infrastructure sits in low-lying areas. And with the city located at the base of Puget Sound, those areas are particularly vulnerable to flooding.<\/p>\n

Research has shown that even a small rise in sea level greatly increases the probability of flooding in Olympia\u2019s downtown area. Lands identified in the past as being vulnerable to impacts of a 100-year flood would be affected every 18 years if sea level were to rise just half a foot, according to a 2011 City of Olympia Engineered Response to Sea Level Rise technical report.<\/p>\n

The report specifies the location, type, and cost of structures that need to be installed with each incremental change in sea level. For example, the report recommends that flood barriers be installed at certain locations on the west facing shoreline of the city\u2019s peninsula before sea level rises a quarter of a foot, and along the east facing shoreline before it rises half a foot. If sea level rises by 50 inches, the report recommends that the barriers be increased in height.<\/p>\n

The cost for the various barriers needed to manage a rise in sea level of one foot was estimated at about $8.5 million. With a four-foot, two-inch rise, the cost grows to $13.6 million. Additional costs include $30 million for a 500 cubic-foot-per-second pump station, and $7.5 million for two smaller pump stations.<\/p>\n

Whether or not such projects will receive full funding remains to be seen, but Wallace said the city has already designed a boardwalk with adaptability in mind. It was designed to last 25 years rather than the standard 50 years, and is both flexible and saltwater resistant.<\/p>\n

He then asked seminar attendees, \u201cIs anyone doing anything that deals with adaptation in this way? Are we all linear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh-oh,\u201dhe said, on seeing not a single hand raised.<\/p>\n

Granted, civil engineers are \u201cat the bottom of the food chain\u201dand, generally, get told what to do, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to give you that information so you can knock on the project manager\u2019s door and, for example, convince him or her not to put a road right next to the shoreline,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

He admitted that education may not be enough in some cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is high resistance to change by owners and operators of existing systems that have a stake in the status quo,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

Regulators here may also still be struggling with how to incorporate the sea level rise and coastal inundation research released over the past year or so. Modeling has shown that in Honolulu and Kaka`ako, flooding as deep as 1.5 meters could reach Beretania Street, located just mauka of the core of downtown Honolulu. In the back of the Mapunapuna industrial area, at Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, and the airport\u2019s reef runway, flooding could be as deep as two meters.<\/p>\n

The modeling also identified, on a block-by-block basis, which parts of the upcoming rail system are vulnerable to inundation hazards.<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s Ocean Sciences conference in Waikiki, University of Hawai`i\u2019s Dolan Eversole, who participated in the sea level modeling work unveiled last year, said he saw some \u201cvery surprised looks\u201d when he presented the information to local managers.<\/p>\n

They were not sure what to do and kept asking him, \u201cSo now what?\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the state Legislature established a committee to complete a sea level rise vulnerability and adaptation report by December 2017. Whether it will identify specific actions needed to protect infrastructure remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

O`ahu\u2019s broader planning documents \u2014the General Plan and the Sustainable Community Plans for the island\u2019s different regions \u2014generally have not factored in climate change impacts, according to Steinberger, who now works at HDR, a private engineering company.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the plans don\u2019t even take into account the possibility of sea level rise. \u2026Projects going out right now don’t take into account sea level rise. Plans for wastewater components don\u2019t even take into account tsunami or hurricane inundation,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the General Plan, it does need to be redone and take into account what is happening in the world,\u201dhe added. A draft general plan is expected to be released this fall.<\/p>\n

When it comes\u00a0to getting funds for sustainability projects, Steinberger said the city council often argues they\u2019re unaffordable and questions whether they\u2019re really necessary.<\/p>\n

In planning for a sustainable future, Steinberger said, \u201cyou\u2019ve got to fight for these things all the time. Unfortunately, we lose a lot of the time. That\u2019s what gives you a lot of grey hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Effecting Change<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

When asked how to generate the political will to make the necessary infrastructural changes, Wallace admitted that it\u2019s difficult given the costs involved and the \u201cnitwits\u201d in certain governmental positions who are still declaring that climate change isn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n

He even criticized the ASCE, stating that its greenhouse gas emissions policy is \u201cfull of crap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still hemming and hawing,\u201dhe said, despite the society\u2019s code of ethics that calls for engineers to take into account public health, safety and welfare. Ignoring or minimizing climate change is an ethical violation of \u201cwhat our duty is as engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggested that engineers need to start telling politicians things they don’t want to hear.<\/p>\n

Ian Sandison, an attorney with Carlsmith Ball and a former engineer, challenged local engineers to start developing a set of criteria for sustainable infrastructure that can find its\u00a0way into specifications issued by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nobody that doesn’t say, \u2018My project is sustainable.\u2019There is almost no agreement on what that word means,\u201dsaid Sandison.<\/p>\n

Simply discussing sustainability in a project\u2019s environmental impacts statement didn\u2019t seem adequate to him. Those statements \u201cjust talk about impacts, but don\u2019t really have a metric,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we provide a legal incentive for a more sustainable project rather than a less sustainable project?\u201dhe asked. Absent new \u201csustainability\u201dmetrics, on a \u201cvery micro level,\u201dengineers can adopt the standards in the Envision rating system, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut it in your specs and make it work. All of you can do it. You don\u2019t need legislation. It\u2019s within your power to make a significant change here,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/i><\/b> <\/i><\/b>Teresa Dawson<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

For Further Reading<\/p>\n

\u201cCity of Olympia Engineered Response to Sea Level Rise,\u201d by Coast & Harbor Engineering: http:\/\/olympiawa.gov\/community\/sustainability\/~\/media\/Files\/PublicWorks\/Sustainability\/Sea%20Level%20Rise%20Response%20Technical%20Report.ashx<\/a><\/p>\n

Combined sea level rise inundation risk map for urban Honolulu:\u00a0 http:\/\/oos.soest.hawaii.edu\/pacioos\/projects\/slr\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDoubling of coastal erosion under rising sea level by mid-century in Hawai\u2019i.” Natural Hazards <\/i>Tiffany R. Anderson, Charles H. Fletcher, Matthew M. Barbee, L. Neil Frazer & Bradley M. Romine (2015). : http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007%2Fs11069-015-1698-6<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/a>
Emergency repairs of coastal infrastructure are expensive and disruptive. To repair this 610-foot stretch of Kamehameha Highway in Ka`a`awa \u2014 part of which crumbled onto the beach earlier this year \u2014 the state Department of Transportation has set aside $8 million. As of last month, the department was still considering whether to close the road entirely or partially, and whether work would occur 24\/7 or only during the day. The highway is the only route in or out for the thousands of residents along Oahu’s windward coast. Construction is expected to begin this month and end in August. Photo: Hawaii Department of Transportation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I can’t tell you how many ulcers I get in a matter of hours when there’s a possibility I could lose 30 pump stations in one event,” said Timothy Steinberger, the former director of Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services. The … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[379,3],"class_list":["post-8014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-may-2015","tag-climate-change","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}