Sea Level Change Guidance for Ports – A Framework for Resilient Port Planning

Summary of the Discussion Session Content and Duration: Historical data records show that the globally-averaged sea water level has been rising over the past century with increasing trends in recent decades. Long-term global sea level rise has compounded coastal flooding hazards during storm events as well as during the regularly occurring high tides. The catastrophic impacts from recent major hurricanes on ports and other coastal infrastructure are well documented. The increasing number of days with high-tide or sunny day flooding of coastal facilities indicate that the effects of rising sea level will further exacerbate the damages to port facilities from extreme episodic storm events in the future.

Ports are critical infrastructure that play an important role in local and national economic development. As the land-sea interface, ports support intermodal transportation logistics and act as gateways to international trade and commerce. Globally and in the U.S. over 70% of merchandise trade is carried by maritime transport, which is reliant on efficient and sustainable port operations. In addition to its role in facilitating global trade, ports contribute significantly to national gross domestic products and initiate development and growth of related and peripheral industries, such as shipping and manufacturing.

For the last several years, the ASCE/COPRI Sea Level Change Committee has been developing a framework document for port engineers and planners. This document is intended to provide practical guidance framework for conducting vulnerability assessments and integrating sea level rise adaptation for resilient port infrastructure and logistic planning. The framework can be implemented for newly built port facilities or upgrading/expanding existing port assets and is intended for guiding port regulators, owners, operators and practitioners in identifying asset types, sea level rise stressors and resiliency objectives and describes a structured process for asset vulnerability assessment, risk and uncertainty quantification and adaptation decision-making.

The purpose of the panel will be to discuss the development of the SLC guidance document as well as discuss it's roll out and implementation.

Target Audience for the Discussion Session: The primary audience for this topic are port engineers, port planners and designers

Description of the Benefit of the Discussion Session to Conference Attendees: This panel will provide insight and clarification on the challenges of planning port infrastructure with consideration of sea level change. Discussion within the session could include the document development process, guidance document goals, implementation challenges as well as plans for future updates.