Impact of Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change on Roadway Transportation Systems
1Tongji University, Shanghai, China
2Texas A&M University System, College Station, USA
3Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China
Impact of Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change on Roadway Transportation Systems
Description
Extreme weather events and climate change are almost invariably considered as an issue of global interest. Previous literature indicates that extreme weather events such as heavy precipitation and intense tropical cyclones are likely to become more frequent or more intense with human-induced climate change. There is also growing evidence that global warming triggers extreme precipitation leading to significant economic loss. Vulnerable roadway transportation systems and infrastructure undergo different severe weather events, and these extreme events are often disruptive by reducing traffic mobility, increasing weather-related crash risk, delaying evacuation processes, etc. For example, heavy rain or fog can affect roadway visibility and thereby decrease travel speed and link capacity.
Anticipating the impact of these events on transportation systems will be very beneficial in shaping preparation actions. In particular, methodologies and supporting intelligent technologies need to be developed to demonstrate how adverse weather information may be used to examine the disruption risk of critical transportation systems under severe weather. Transportation agencies will benefit from accurate estimation of the near-term weather effects on their system by predicting the changes in travel demand and network traffic conditions. Predicting near-term weather activity based on current weather data can assist transportation agencies to design a reasonable weather-responsive traffic management plan and identify priorities for weather emergency strategies.
This Special Issue aims to solicit original research articles that report cutting-edge ideas, knowledge, methodologies, techniques, and practices in assessing and mitigating the impact of climate change and weather on roadway transportation systems and infrastructure. Review articles discussing the current state of the art are also welcomed.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Transportation system resilience to extreme weather and climate change
- Adaptation of transportation infrastructure to climate change and extreme weather impacts
- Evaluate the roadway transportation system disruption risk using available extreme weather information
- New intelligent transportation system technologies with global climate models
- Road weather information collection technologies
- Extreme weather emergency management and weather-responsive traffic management
- Extreme weather-related traffic safety modeling
- Analysis of traffic operations under extreme weather conditions
- Data-driven approaches for improved traffic operation under extreme weather conditions
- Road infrastructure maintenance under extreme weather conditions
- Evacuation and network resilience under extreme weather conditions
- Nuisance flooding impacts on transportation infrastructure