HDOT Climate Resilience Action Plan | May 2021

⊲ Land Use/Conservation District Use coordination with the Department of Land and Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands Rating of Implementation Effort: Medium EXPLICITLY RECOGNIZE IN POLICY AND PLANS THAT CLIMATE-RELATED EFFECTS ARE A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE HDOT will incorporate climate adaptation and system resilience explicitly into its mission statement, policies, and transportation plans. HDOT’s risk-based TAMP describes the approach HDOT is taking toward considering the probable consequences of hazard events in decision-making. Updates of this Action Plan will include anticipated advancements to address climate change. Other plans that should be targeted for climate change sections when updated include the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan, Statewide Surface Transportation Plan, and any corridor/ subarea studies sponsored by HDOT. ESTABLISH CLEAR AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND SYSTEM RESILIENCE WITHIN HDOT The responsibility for guiding the implementation of the Action Plan and the overall agency climate adaptation and system resilience initiative (policy) will be assigned to an individual manager or to a leadership committee. This responsibility has been similarly assigned in other state DOTs. An assigned responsibility provides direction for actions that must be taken, a location for answering questions on what and how efforts must be taken, and a central accountability for monitoring the progress CREATE AN ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICE, AT THE BRANCH LEVEL OR HIGHER, THAT HAS BROAD RESPONSIBILITY FOR HDOT’S ENVIRONMENTAL, CLIMATE ADAPTATION, AND SYSTEM RESILIENCE EFFORTS This action can be linked to the previous one in that the new office may be given the responsibility for climate adaptation and system resilience efforts at HDOT. The intent is to create a center of responsibility and capability within HDOT for environmental analysis and interaction with Federal and State environmental resource agencies. Part of this capability is having a new geographic information system (GIS) position in the unit with responsibility for conducting GIS-related analyses. This unit will consolidate the current activities in project-specific environmental reviews and stormwater management and provide guidance on climate adaptation and system resilience in long-term planning projects. Oversight of the climate adaptation program will include administration of climate data for project applications, conduct of climate risk and resilience assessments for projects, and coordination with environmental agencies to obtain approvals on adaptation strategies. See Appendix C for a brief introduction to HDOT’s current environmental capabilities and information on how other states structure their environmental analysis responsibility. Rating of Implementation Effort: High Rating of Implementation Effort: Medium HDOT LEAD/RESOURCES being made in implementing the Action Plan. Rating of Implementation Effort: Medium

HIRE STAFF TO LEAD THE AGENCY’S SYSTEM RESILIENCE EFFORT

The implementation of many actions in this Action Plan requires agency staff in leadership and support roles. HDOT will make a business case for the hiring of new staff dedicated to climate adaptation and system resilience by identifying the socioeconomic benefits of a resilient highway system. This effort will require consideration of how to make employment opportunities at HDOT competitive with other options, including working for Federal agencies or the private sector. Making such a case will consider that (1) staff levels in HDOT have been reduced over the past several years; (2) there is a shortage of engineers and planners in Hawai‘i ; and (3) government positions, on average, offer lower salaries than those in the One of the most important factors supporting an agency’s adaptation program is having the funds available to support the planning, design, and construction of project and/or implementation of strategies. The State of Hawai‘i and HDOT need to be prepared with funding capacity to implement a climate adaptation program without competing with funds for projects undertaken for other purposes such as safety. Potential sources for this funding include the following: ⊲ State funds made available through new State legislation targeting resilience needs. The State of California has passed similar legislation. HDOT can make the case for such funding legislation based on known needs, including those outlined in this Action Plan. ⊲ Existing Federal competitive grant programs to help states develop the capability of undertaking adaptation efforts, as noted in Appendix B. Funds administered by the FHWA and FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program are particularly applicable for the highway network. ⊲ Future (potential) Federal transportation funding programs. Draft Federal transportation legislation currently includes funds dedicated to system resilience, particularly climate change adaptation projects. It is also probable that the Federal funds likely to flow through this program will have to be matched with State funds, demonstrating partnerships with other stakeholders and creating a larger potential pool of funding. The use of funding would be varied and could be applied for projects ranging from those making incremental changes on a broad resilience issue, to others where projects are completed solely to address specific resilience concerns. Efforts could include many of the strategies outlined in this Action Plan, from internal change within the agency, to data collection/generation, to effective project planning, design, and construction. One example of the use of funding would be a project undertaken primarily to replace a bridge deck due to asset condition reasons that could―with the use of the adaptation funds―also investigate and implement improvements to drainage or landscaping features that would protect the bridge from future flooding or wildfires. Rating of Implementation Effort: High Federal government and in the private sector. Rating of Implementation Effort: Medium CREATE A HIGHWAY SYSTEM RESILIENCE FUNDING PROGRAM

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