HDOT Climate Resilience Action Plan | May 2021

D.7 RESEARCHERS IN LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS HDOT should continue to work with those entities that monitor climate change trends and those that contribute to the understanding of potential future climate-related effects on highway assets. This group includes universities and science-based agencies such as the University of Hawai‘i, the United States Geologic Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. D.8 UTILITY COMPANIES In project design and implementation, routinemaintenance, and emergency response, HDOT must partner with public utilities such as the local power, communications, and water/sewer companies, which often share the same rights-of-way. From a safety standpoint, the local electric company is one of the most critical utilities for such collaboration to ensure effective operation of the HDOT system. HDOT should continue to build and strengthen relationships with public utilities to reduce shared risks and deliver services to businesses and residents. D.9 GENERAL PUBLIC AND PUBLIC AWARENESS HDOT should foster a better public understanding of the challenges that climate change could pose to the State and to the State’s highway network—economic loss, community disruption, impacts on trade and tourism, and health and safety, among others. In addition, HDOT should explain the Action Plan in ways that the public can understand, and in a manner that places HDOT in State leadership for considering climate change risks in investment decision making. HDOT can be a role model in State and local coordination and a resource on climate adaptation options for key elected officials and other senior government leaders. HDOT’s representatives should also remain engaged in the State Climate Change Commission, other state planning activities, and similar efforts at the county level.

HAWAI‘ I HIGHWAYS | CLIMATE ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN ( D-3 )