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27s e s s i o n 3 : r e c o v e r y renewable energy sources and power generation, includ- ing possible impacts on alternative-fuel vehicles. ⢠Research on methods to build public awareness of extreme weather events and their impact on transport systems would also be beneficial. Examining the use of new technology to communicate with the general public and working with the media could be part of the projects. ⢠A few participants discussed developing a synthe- sis of good practices of transport agencies responding to high heat and humidity. ⢠Research developing stress test and risk assess- ment techniques for extreme temperatures was noted as important, including how to identify hot spots. ⢠Finally, a number of participants said that research focusing on the impact of extreme heat and humidity on transport materials, equipment, and structures would be beneficial. Possible projects could focus on developing pavements, equipment, bridges, rails, and tunnels that are more resilient to extreme temperatures. breaKout grouP b Alan McKinnon Challenges ⢠Participants discussed the challenge of shifting the focus from system design to operational issues in plan- ning for, responding to, and recovering from extreme weather events. ⢠Another challenge was upgrading information sys- tems during events to monitor failures and to capture data for future analysis. ⢠Some participants discussed the lack of informa- tion on the impacts on transport infrastructure substruc- tures and hardware resulting from climate change and extreme weather events. ⢠Other participants discussed challenges associated with cross-jurisdictional boundary issues and coordina- tion among agencies. It was suggested that a crisis can create opportunities, however, by raising the visibility of issues. It was further suggested that new programs and additional funding may result from a crisis. ⢠One participant mentioned the challenge of deal- ing with the media during extreme weather events. The media may be looking for an agency to blame, which may distort the diagnosis and the learning process. ⢠Identifying when a weather-related event begins and ends is often a challenge, especially for slow-moving events related to extreme heat. Knowing when to take action in these types of events can be difficult. ⢠Finally, the challenges associated with moving from vulnerability assessments to adaptation planning were considered. It was suggested that a new framework for adaptation planning was needed that included new data, analysis methods, and institutional relationships to collect and share data. Research ⢠Individual participants suggested that research focusing on deploying new technologies to facilitate automated data collection would be beneficial, but they noted that many transport agencies struggle with main- taining existing technologies. Developing methods for conducting an inventory of currently available data, cre- ating more data transparency and data sharing between agencies, and making the data available to researchers could be elements of a research project. ⢠Developing more robust climate change scenarios and the potential impacts on the transport system could be a possible research topic. Approaches to responding to these scenarios could then be developed. ⢠Improved information to predict human reactions to transport disruptions, including changes in travel behavior, travel modes, and time of travel, would be use- ful planning information. ⢠Some participants suggested that research examin- ing the experience from other sectors on how to manage postevent learning would be beneficial. The defense and insurance sectors were suggested as good examples to learn about these experiences. Others noted that trans- port agencies are preoccupied with daily, operational challenges, which makes it difficult to diagnose and con- duct postevent assessments. ⢠A few participants thought that research examin- ing the temperature tolerances of transport equipment would be valuable. It was suggested that technical speci- fications and tolerances may need to be widened. ⢠A number of participants discussed that research build- ing on organizational learning, which is a well-developed field, would be beneficial. It was suggested that transport adaptation research would be well-served by taking findings from organizational learning research into account. ⢠There was interest in a holistic analysis of the dis- tribution of risk, responsibility, and cost between the providers and users of transport infrastructure. Research examining sharing the relative cost of different adaptation strategies among stakeholders and mechanisms for more fairly distributing costs and risks was noted as important. ⢠Participants suggested that research examining methods of raising revenue for adaptation initiatives would be beneficial. Possible funding mechanisms could include road user charges, indexing the gas tax, and development impact fees. ⢠Developing effective case studies of planning for, responding to, and recovering from extreme tempera- tures would be beneficial.
