Capacity Building and Workforce Development for Coastal Transportation Infrastructure Exposed to Multi-hazards: Phase I

Coastal communities have been particularly affected due to the cascading effects of multi-hazard natural and technological events. Underserved coastal populations often face disparate impacts of transportation projects without receiving the same level of benefits as other population groups. Floods and storm surge, debris from extreme winds, corrosion and salinity, lack of alternative routes and services, and infrastructure failure are some of the effects of extreme events in coastal areas. Critical infrastructure, such as power plants, industrial parks, housing developments, communication hubs, water and wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, shopping centers, maritime transportation facilities and terminals and essential supporting infrastructure in coastal areas need to cope with the recovery process after catastrophes. Achieving needed resources and sustaining the technical capacity to deal with emerging issues related to shifting population, transportation demand, technological and climate changes is one of the known challenges for local and state transportation agencies. This project will evaluate the diverse experiences of coastal contexts, recognize strategies for adaptation and change of transportation infrastructure, identify communication and information limitations of coastal communities, and study the challenges for attracting a diverse workforce that reflect the variety of perspectives of coastal communities and support equitable planning and decision making in transportation infrastructure. The project workplan is divided into three major tasks. The first task will develop a framework in education and capacity building to address coastal infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance issues as a pipeline for workforce development to reach a diverse audience of stakeholders, namely, government officials, policy makers, academia, and the community. Emphasis will be placed on the best practices in the application of resilience and sustainability of transportation infrastructure on coastal areas.  The second task will review the state-of-the-art and the practice on hazards, exposure, vulnerability, risks, and resilience of the transportation infrastructure in mobility corridors through affected coastal communities and will assess opportunities for improving resilience and durability. A case study in Puerto Rico will be used to gather data to develop a decision support system that improve the decision-making process to assign operational decisions before, during and after an extreme event and help make recommendations to improve the operation and management of the transportation system in selected critical corridors. The third task will foster improved public involvement in the planning and execution of transportation projects in coastal areas, within the framework of equitable mobility. Activities include defining the factors and performance measures of equitable mobility from the perspective of stakeholders of coastal communities, develop a methodology to collect community preferences at the inception of a transportation infrastructure project using visualizations technologies such as virtual reality and others, and develop case studies to validate the method with communities with cultural, language, and context differences.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $338568
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

  Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying
  PO Box 9000
  Mayagüez PR 00681-9000, PR  United States  00681-9000

  Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works

  San Juan, PR  United States  00940-2007
• Managing Organizations:

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

  Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying
  PO Box 9000
  Mayagüez PR 00681-9000, PR  United States  00681-9000
• Project Managers:

  Bruner, Britain

  Medina, Alberto

  Kulesza, Stacey

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

  Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying
  PO Box 9000
  Mayagüez PR 00681-9000, PR  United States  00681-9000
• Principal Investigators:

  Figueroa Medina, Alberto

  Lopez del Puerto, Carla

  Trinidad, Ismael

• Start Date: 20230815
• Expected Completion Date: 20241231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coasts; Decision support systems; Disaster resilience; Education and training; Equity; Personnel development; Public participation; Risk assessment
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01895251
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 3 2023 9:54PM