Measuring climate and extreme weather vulnerability to inform resilience, report 1 : a pilot study for North Atlantic medium- and high-use maritime freight

Abstract

This research identified vulnerability indicators from open-data sources that represent the three components of vulnerability, as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. With input from experts knowledgeable in port operations, planning, policy, and data, researchers refined a set of highlevel vulnerability indicators to answer the following key questions: (1) how sufficient is the current state of U.S. seaport sector data for developing expert-supported vulnerability indicators for a regional sample of ports and (2) how can indicators be used to measure the relative vulnerability (i.e., exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) of multiple ports? Using open-data sources, this study developed an Indicator-Based Vulnerability Assessment methodology that integrates multiple vulnerability indicators for ports in the North Atlantic region. The Analytic Hierarchy Process, a technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions using pairwise comparisons, was used to develop a ranking that matched 3 of the top-4 most vulnerable ports that were subjectively identified by port experts. This demonstrates strong promise for this methodological approach to measure seaport vulnerability to climate and extreme weather events. Indices of seaport relative vulnerability to climate and extreme weather can advance goals for a resilient Marine Transportation System by informing efforts and plans to prioritize and allocate limited resources.

Measuring climate and extreme weather vulnerability to inform resilience, report 2 : port decision-makers’ barriers to climate and extreme weather adaptation

“…This appendix explains that a port's level of vulnerability, in terms of adaptive capacity, is strongly tied to its decision-makers' understanding of the risks and potential impacts and acting upon that knowledge. This is of interest to this study, as the adaptive capacity element of the vulnerability component had the lowest ranking during the expert evaluation process (McIntosh et al 2019). As mentioned earlier, study respondents most often explained vulnerability in terms of a port's exposure and sensitivity.…”

“…This report captures the first of a twopart study. In the first part of the study (McIntosh et al [2019], Measuring Climate and Extreme Weather Vulnerability to Inform Resilience: Report 1: Pilot Study for North Atlantic Medium-and High-Use Maritime Freight Nodes), experts ranked higher the use of exposure and sensitivity indicators as measures of ports vulnerability. This report is a summary of the second part of the study.…”

“…Additional questions explored the concept of vulnerability -to determine if interviewees understood the components of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity (McIntosh et al 2019).…”

“…Ground truthing in this study follows the development of a quantitative vulnerability index for ports (McIntosh et al 2019). The index can be used to assess relative vulnerability measurements across multiple ports, identifying those at higher risk to impacts from extreme weather events.…”

Advancing Seaport Resilience to Natural Hazards Due to Climate Change: Strategies to Overcome Decision Making Barriers

“…The motivation behind this study began with the need to better understand the "adaptive capacity" to climate and extreme weather events for medium-and high-use seaports in North Atlantic. Our earlier study identified "seaport vulnerability indicators" in order to inform metrics for seaport resilience (McIntosh et al, 2019). In that study, vulnerability consists of three key components: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.…”