Urban Systems As Place-Based Foci For Infrastructure Interactions - Climate Change and Infrastructure, Urban Systems, and Vulnerabilities - page 53

In the 2030 scenario, refueling routes are likely to depend on new and beter main-
tained routes refueling from the west with more critical botlenecks coming into the ur-
ban areas from Lee and Collier County.
Power outages degrade communication with ambulance dispatchers, delaying
emergency treatment. At cellular towers, a power outage longer than four hours drains
backup bateries. Services would continue to deteriorate after four to eight hours and
cellular towers and small wire centers will fail. Without portable generators or mobile
base stations, cellular services degrade after eight hours without power. Larger wire
centers continue to function for two to three days on the fuel reserves present onsite.
Currently, communication restoration use satellite phone service until regular service
can be restored.
In the 2030 scenario, communications would be restored first in the western counties
and more slowly restored in the Miami-Dade area further slowing restoration in the
most damaged areas within the east coast counties and taxing the availability of emer-
gency phones and radios in the eastern damage zone.
Wired telecommunication outages are projected to be caused by subsurface in-
undation and to be aggravated by power systems failures, flooding or wind damage to
pole-mounted telecommunications systems. In the 2010 scenario, fifteen wireline cen-
ters, which serve 413,000 households, are expected to be out of service. Two additional
mobile switching centers in the Miami area are in the surge zone, along with 12 wire
centers that provide competitive exchange service.. Beyond the surge zone are stationed
an additional 51 wireline centers serving approximately 1.3 million households in the
high electric damage area. In the 2010 scenario, a similar number of households located
further west would likely lose service, but would be restored more rapidly since they
would be located in a less intense damage area.
Water and wastewater treatment systems failures pose the most significant threats
to public health. Prolonged outages to the power and data communication infrastruc-
tures increase water supply treatment requirements and increase flood losses from con-
taminated floodwater. Restoring disrupted facilities will involve major cleanup, repair of
small motors and transformers, and clean up and repair of major electrical equipment. It
is also possible that these wastewater treatment plants will be overloaded during flood-
ing. If this occurs, wastewater may have to be diverted around the facility, bypassing
the treatment facility protocols and resulting in untreated discharge. Analysis of potable
treatment facilities identified 36 water treatment facilities in the high electric damage
area, indicating a higher likelihood of power disruption to these facilities. Analysis of
wastewater treatment facilities identified 14 wastewater treatment facilities with a high-
er likelihood of power disruption to these facilities. One of the facilities in any damage
zone was identified as being a large treatment facility, processing more than 200 million
gallons/day (MGD). In the 2030 scenario, discharges from this facility would likely be re-
leased to the more economically sensitive Gulf of Mexico than the Atlantic Coast, which
would result in significantly increased economic risks.
2) RISK IMPLICATIONS
As illustrated in the brief case study illustrated here, as sea level rise and other climate
impacts cause both infrastructures to adapt to new environmental conditions, and