Implications for Future Risk Management Strategies - Climate Change and Infrastructure, Urban Systems, and Vulnerabilities - page 57

cost to taxpayers. Note, for example, a 2010 by the World Economic Forum, Posi-
tive Infrastructure: A Framework for Revitalizing the Global Economy (2010) and a
statement by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety in 2011: “The
Mutual Benefits of Business Continuity and Community Resilience.”
• Where classes of infrastructure are toward the end of their lifetimes, or
performing poorly under growing demand, so that changes are going to be
required, there are often windows of opportunity to do the new things in

ways
that are adaptable rather than inflexible and even maladapted to future climate
changes.
• Leadership and effective governance are virtually always essential to the devel-
opment and execution of effective green infrastructure strategies (also see NCA
technical impact report on US Cities and Climate Change

One underlying theme is that risk management strategies often involve both struc-
tural approaches (focused on physical structures themselves) and non-structural ap-
proaches (focused on how physical structures are operated, including rules and guide-
lines, operating protocols, and innovative management).
Meanwhile, new tools are emerging. For example, the Institute for Sustainable
Infrastructure has created Envisionm a system for rating the sustainability and resili-
ence of infrastructure to climate change which directs atention to such issues as chang-
es in environmental extremes during an infrastructures lifetime and its location in ex-
posed areas.
Issues in realizing potentials identified by the workshop discussion for this report
include:

• Prospects for bundling climate change responses with other sustainability issues,
e.g.: multi-hazard resilience, infrastructure asset management planning, busi-
ness continuity, ecosystem protection
• Assistance with risk/vulnerability assessments to enhance resilience
• Opportunities for citizen service that may be met in less capital-intensive ways
• Adapting strategies to differences in local hydrologic regimes
• Approaches for spurring innovation
• Addressing issues regarding funding, e.g.:
• Different capital dynamics by infrastructure type
• Recalibrating pricing structures
• Finding smart approaches that are less expensive
• Relationships between climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation
offer opportunities for synergies (Box 3).

One part of the equation is the method and means by which a community is designed
and built has a major impact on its contribution to climate change and on its ability to
prepare for and adapt to changes in the climate.
• Compact development that uses land efficiently uses fewer resources to build
and operate and enables people to get around easily with less driving or without