Session A6

NEPA Playbook: Integrating Resilience and Climate Change

Laynee Jones, PE

11:15 AM – 12:45 PM ET

About the Presentation

Impacts from climate change, from flooding to heat, strain and disrupt transportation systems. Short-term shocks, such as extreme weather events, can disrupt ingress and egress, and longer-term stresses, such as extreme heat or persistent flooding, can physically erode the network and strain connectivity of transportation systems. Other stresses like aging infrastructure and traffic congestion can further reduce adaptive capacity. To effectively increase the resilience of the transportation system now and in the future, strategies to incorporate resilience should be integrated early in the planning process and throughout the project life cycle.

Join our conversation to learn how to integrate interventions to reduce impacts from climate change and enhance resilience through  the NEPA process for transportation projects, including public transit (buses and trains), roads and highways, and intercity rail. This will be a lively discussion on how to move the needle on major transportation infrastructure projects. Audience participation and ideas are welcome. Discussion will include:

  • Integrating resilience in the scoping and public engagement process
  • Incorporating climate change vulnerabilities into the Purpose and Need statement
  • Developing alternatives to strengthen the transportation network
  • Incorporating resilience into Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences sections
  • Performance metrics and evaluation criteria useful in decision-making
  • Lead federal agencies and resilience - recent decisions and current practices

 

About the Speaker(s)

Laynee Jones, PE
Vice President, Transportation NEPA Group Lead
AECOM

Laynee helps clients deliver transportation projects for the future, with a bold focus on equity, resilience, and innovation. Her history in leading major NEPA transportation projects includes the Dallas to Houston High Speed Rail EIS and the I-11 Tier 1 EIS in Arizona. She is a planner and an engineer with over 25 years experience in the transportation NEPA arena and leads AECOM’s transportation NEPA technical practice. Laynee is currently focused on BRT and intercity rail projects. Laynee paved the way for digital and interactive innovation for NEPA by implementing the first fully interactive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the US for the I-11 Tier 1 EIS in Arizona in July 2021.

 

Laura Cherney
Senior Ecologist
AECOM 

Laura is an environmental scientist and certified AECOM Project Manager with experience in policy, environmental science, sustainability, and engineering throughout South Florida. She specializes in environmental impact assessments and natural resource management. Laura has extensive experience with natural infrastructure including marine and terrestrial wetland ecology; threatened and endangered species, NEPA compliance, and environmental resource permitting on projects ranging from large-scale transportation projects to habitat restoration projects. She has worked on numerous municipal climate resilience projects to provide decision-makers with locally relevant information and tools to maintain business continuity in the face of a changing climate.

 

Back to Schedule