ASSESSING THE VULNERABILITY OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK TO IMPACTS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE: FOCUS ON NEW ENGLAND

TREVELYN POTTER

DR. PATRICK HALPIN, ADVISOR

Climate Change Impacts in New England

Increasing temperatures

Increasing precipitation and precipitation intensity

Increase in severe weather

Sea Level Rise

Wireless Communications Infrastructure Siting Overview

WikipediaWikipedia

Thefoa.orgwww.dasillc.com

Current Environmental Considerations in Siting

National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

FEMA and the 100 year Floodplain

Wind Zones and Building Codes

Potential Impacts from Climate Change

Flood Damage

Severe Weather

Hurricanes

Wind Damage

Sea Level Rise

Wirelessestimator.com

FCC Registered Sites in Connecticut

Town Population Ranking

Population Percentiles Towns in Connecticut80 and above (High Capacity)

Stamford, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven

60 through 80 (High Capacity)

Waterbury

40 through 60 (Medium Capacity)

West Hartford, Manchester, Greenwich, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, Hamden, Meriden, Bristol, New Britain

Priority Ranked Sites

ResultsMapping the Vulnerabilities

Floodplain Mapping

All Si

tes

With

in 1

00 Y

ear F

lood

plai

n

With

in 5

00 Y

ear F

lood

plai

n

With

in 5

0 Fe

et o

f a Fl

oodp

lain

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400 379

26 39 4452

4 4 437

4 12 12TotalMedium CapacityHigh Capacity

Sit

e C

ount

Hurricane Inundation

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 40

4

8

12

16

20

All Sites Medium Capacity High Capacity

Hurricane Strength

Sit

e C

ount

Sea Level Rise

Data Availability for New EnglandData Category

Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

Digital Flood Coverage

Partial Partial Partial Partial Complete Partial

Digital Elevation Model

LIDAR-based LIDAR - based

LIDAR - partial Non-LIDAR LIDAR LIDAR - partial

Hurricane Inundation

Yes Yes Yes (ACOE only) Yes (ACOE only)

Yes N/A

Wind Speed

No No Yes (FEMA map) No Yes (for windpower)

Yes

Other Natural Disaster

No No No No No Ice Storm (1998)

Telecom Infrastructure

No Updated 1998

No Updated 2007

No Updated 2011

Limitations of Existing GIS Data

Not all structures are registered with the FCC

Digital flood mapping is not available for all areas, particularly rural ones

Hurricane Inundation data not broken down into categories for all areas

Lack of LIDAR-based and local scale sea level rise mapping for many coastal areas

Lack of fine-scale GIS wind data applicable to infrastructure of this type

Lessons from the Past

Ice Storm of 1998

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Sandy

Recommendations for the Future

Consider areas of current “moderate risk” like 500 year floodplains and adjacent areas when making siting decisions

Implement registration requirement for all licensed antenna sites

Avoid projected coastal inundation areas

Develop uniform regional or national data sets for vulnerability assessments

Questions