Global Climate Change

Adapting the Army Corps of Engineers' mission

By Craig Collins - March 1, 2013

On July 10, 2011, Don Perovich, Ph.D., a geophysicist with USACE’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, maneuvered through melt ponds collecting optical data along the way to get a sense of the amount of sunlight reflected from sea ice and melt ponds in the Chukchi Sea. The 2010-2011 ICESCAPE, or Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, mission was NASA’s two-year shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems. The bulk of the research took place in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in summer 2010 and 2011. NASA/Kathryn Hansen

As the agency that plans, builds, and maintains much of the infrastructure that makes waterways navigable, protects communities from floods, and provides access to drinking water and recreation, USACE is a leader in this national collaboration. “In the Civil Works Program,” White said, “we’re very interested and concerned about changing extremes of flood and drought. We need to be able to proactively plan for them, because changes in extremes may cause us to need to change our operations to account for climate changes. We have policy for sea-level change available now – and we’re working on additional policy and guidance for adaptation, and making sure that’s done in cooperation with other agencies to be sure it’s nationally consistent.”

Climate Change and the Military Mission

Of all the work USACE does, the American public is most likely to interact with its civil works mission and infrastructure. The assumption that climate change is, to USACE, all about water resources is understandable, but incomplete. The 2010 “Quadrennial Defense Review” recognized that climate change has the potential to profoundly change how the nation’s war-fighters live, train, and fight – and DoD will need to adjust to the impacts of climate change on its facilities and military capabilities.

The Pentagon, like the nation’s water resources agencies, recently produced a foundational document on its approach to climate change: “The Department of Defense and Climate Change: Initiating the Dialogue,” released in January 2012. The document presented several recommendations for continuing to develop the science necessary to understand the ways in which climate change will alter the future operating environment, and for framing appropriate responses to such changes.

Because USACE is responsible for building military facilities, its Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) – particularly ERDC’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Ill. – has been at the forefront of this research. One of its most significant contributions is funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), a joint DoD/EPA/DoE effort to describe current or potential climate change impacts on the military’s missions and assets. According to one of the laboratory’s technical directors, William D. Goran, SERDP research programs include:

Drought and climate change-induced physiological stress are causing
extensive forest dieback in the western United States as well as
worldwide. This photo shows dead ponderosa pines in the Jemez
Mountains of New Mexico killed by a combination of drought stress
and an insect outbreak of bark beetles on weakened trees. U.S. Geological Survey photo by Craig D. Allen

studies of how climate change in Alaska’s interior is affecting permafrost, setting in motion a number of results that could influence how, where, and when the military can train.
studies of coastal risks associated with sea-level rise. ERDC has been involved in a study of the Hampton Roads area near Norfolk, Va., home to the world’s largest naval base and additional installations for all four military service branches.
studies of how increased drought and higher temperatures may increase fire danger and reduce water availability for facilities in the American Southwest.
studies of how and when installation management decisions are affected by changing temperature, precipitation, and water levels.

As USACE continues to develop adaptation plans for both its civil works and military support missions, its scientists continue to contribute to the science on which these adaptations will be based. In early 2013, for example, researchers from the crrel are scheduled to present the changes observed in the Arctic ice – an early indicator of climate change – over the past year at a meeting of the NASA/USACE-led Interagency Forum on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations.

The forum, an informal gathering that provides a venue for presentations and discussion on climate change issues common to all government agencies, is yet another example of how USACE climate change adaptations are part of a government-wide partnership. “We’re very engaged with the interagency community to understand the phenomena impacting all of our missions,” Goran said, “and share with each other perspectives and lessons learned on how to adjust and adapt to these changes.”

This article first appeared in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2012-2013 Edition.