Characterizing Adaptive Capacity for Rail Transportation Resilience: Options, Strategies, and Influential Factors

Aging assets and natural hazards pose threats to rail transportation infrastructure. Transportation agencies can benefit from improved adaptive capacity, or the ability to proactively and successfully respond to shocks, stressors, and opportunities in the transportation system. Adaptive capacity can be achieved through adaptation options (physical infrastructure changes) and strategies (organizational approaches). Further, adaptive capacity can be influenced not only by the agencies themselves, but also national policies. This project will explore how adaptive capacity can be effectively measured and how different factors influence adaptive capacity. It will do so via a literature and policy review, surveys and interviews, and a mixed-methods approach that collects quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously. Resulting in a set of metrics to quantify adaptive capacity, a database of adaptation options and strategies, and assessment of how national policies can impact adaptive capacity, this project will yield a better understanding of what factors can influence adaptive capacity and how. This knowledge will promote transportation resilience and inform policy decisions.