Creating Resilient Transportation Systems: Policy, Planning and Implementation demonstrates how the transportation sector is a leading producer of carbon emissions that result in climate change and extreme weather disruptions and disasters. In the book, Renne, Wolshon, Murray-Tuite, Pande and Kim demonstrate how to minimize the transportation impacts associated with these urban disasters, with an ultimate goal of returning them to at least status quo in the shortest feasible time. - Assesses the short and long-term impacts of transportation systems on the natural environment at local, regional and global scales - Examines transportation systems in relation to risk, vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation, sustainability, climate change and livability - Shows how urban transportation investments in transit, walking and bicycling result in significantly lower per capita carbon emissions when compared to investing in sprawling, automobile dependent regions

"The Great American Dream of cruising down the parkway, zipping from here to there at any time has given way to a true nightmare that is destroying the environment, costing billions and deeply impacting our personal well-being. Getting from A to B has never been more difficult, expensive or miserable. It doesn't have to be this way. Jeffrey Tumlin's book Sustainable Transportation Planning offers easy-to-understand, clearly explained tips and techniques that will allow us to quite literally take back our roads. Essential reading for anyone who wants to drive our transportation system out of the gridlock." -Marianne Cusato, home designer and author of Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid ?The book is full of useful ideas on nearly every page.? ? Bill DiBennedetto of Triple Pundit As transportations-related disciplines of urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban economics, and social policy have undergone major internal reform efforts in recent decades Written in clear, easy-to-follow language, this book provides planning practitioners with the tools they need to achieve their cities? economic development, social equity and ecological sustainability goals. Starting with detailed advice for improving each mode of transportation, the book offers guidance on balancing the needs of each mode against each other, whether on a downtown street, or a small town neighborhood, or a regional network.

"Overview: Global transportation infrastructure today is confronted with significant vulnerabilities -- an aging infrastructure; a growing concentration of populations at high-density coastal urban areas; increasing interdependencies among the nation's physical and cyber infrastructures; co-location of many transportation systems with large-scale and potentially hazardous production facilities; and the escalating threats of climate change. Together, they have coalesced to create significant challenges for the nation's critical infrastructure systems. / A framework for enhancing critical transportation infrastructure resiliency could serve as a roadmap for addressing some of these pressing global challenges. Recently, the concept of resiliency, however, has become a buzzword used to characterize a system that recovers rapidly from a disruption in order to resume normal functions. But, resiliency is more than bouncing back. / The U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe Center hosted a roundtable of experts to explore resiliency in the context of challenges facing the nation's transportation system. The experts concurred that resiliency requires a change in focus from near-perfect efficiency to planned redundancy, flexibility, fault-tolerance, and resourcefulness. A resilient transportation infrastructure will be able to anticipate threats--both natural and man-made--and will be able to absorb shocks and adapt to changing conditions. With a resilient approach, we can rebuild better--and smarter--recognizing that no infrastructure exists in isolation. Resiliency will make our future infrastructure reliable, sustainable, and survivable."--Overview (page 1).

Drawing from research and examples about resilient cities, this book looks at new initiatives and innovations cities can implement.

Infrastructure—electricity, telecommunications, roads, water, and sanitation—are central to people’s lives. Without it, they cannot make a living, stay healthy, and maintain a good quality of life. Access to basic infrastructure is also a key driver of economic development. This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users’ needs during and after a natural hazard. It focuses on four infrastructure systems that are essential to economic activity and people’s well-being: power systems, including the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; water and sanitation—especially water utilities; transport systems—multiple modes such as road, rail, waterway, and airports, and multiple scales, including urban transit and rural access; and telecommunications, including telephone and Internet connections.

Climate change is exacerbating weather-related impacts on the transportation system. As floods, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather events become more common and destructive, transportation infrastructure will need to adapt to become more resilient. To better understand how climate change will impact Minnesota’s transportation system and to identify areas of high risk in the state, MnDOT is seeking to develop a new strategy that measures and tracks a range of climate resiliency-related variables. This Transportation Research Synthesis presents the findings of a survey of state transportation agencies about the performance measures and practices implemented to monitor the agencies’ climate resilience efforts. Supplementing these findings are case studies of selected state departments of transportation and resources obtained through a literature search.

Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.