Superfund Climate Resilience: Vulnerability Assessment

• Potential Hazards

  A climate change-related hazard potentially affecting a remediation system may involve:

  • An event,  such as a hurricane
  • A sustained change, such as drought
  • An unanticipated project parameter, such as increased stormwater
  • A technological problem arising in the system or site infrastructure, such as a power loss.
  Vulnerability Assessment
• Resilience Measures
• Adaptive Capacity

Vulnerability Assessment

Consideration of climate change implications in cleanup projects is most effective through use of a place-based strategy, due to the varying geophysical characteristics of contaminated sites, the nature of remedial actions at those sites, and local or regional climate and weather regimes. Assessing the vulnerability of a site remedy involves:

• Evaluating the remedy's exposure to climate or weather hazards of concern (such as high floodwater or soil subsidence).
• Evaluating the remedy's sensitivity to the hazards of concern (likelihood for the hazards to reduce remedy effectiveness).

Resources to help project managers and other stakeholders understand climate change implications and identify potential hazards at specific sites are available online from EPA and other federal agencies. The types or resources range from interactive desktop tools to extensive information compendiums that can support site cleanup decision making.