Introduction - Climate Change and Infrastructure, Urban Systems, and Vulnerabilities - page 2

including sectoral, regional, and cross-cuting chapters. In the summer of 2011, a number
of USGCRP agencies stepped forward to commission technical input reports - each with
at least one expert workshop and with a submission deadline of March 1, 2012, condensed
into a period of eight months or less. Meanwhile, the advisory commitee for the NCA
(NCADAC) has appointed author groups for the report chapters, who incorporated the
technical input in a draft NCA report to be submited to the U.S. Congress by early 2014
(see www.globalchange.gov).
This report benefited from a scoping workshop on July 20, 2011, and an expert work-
shop November 9-10, both in Washington, DC. A final draft of the full report was sent to
eleven distinguished external reviewers, eight of whom provided extensive comments
and suggestions that were incorporated in this document.
The report includes substantial sections on “framing climate change implications
for infrastructures and urban systems to climate change,” considering both sensitivi-
ties to climate change and linkages among infrastructures, and on “urban systems as
place-based foci for infrastructure interactions.” These sections are followed by sections
on implications for risk management strategies, research gaps, and developing a self-
sustained assessment capacity for the longer term.