Climate Change and Extreme Events Training and Research (CCEETR) Program

Climate change and the consequential impacts of sea-level rise, coastal storms, landslides, extreme temperatures, wildfires, and inland flooding pose a significant risk to the North American freight and passenger rail network.  When these events affect a rail line, consequences include disruption of service, economic losses to the rail industry and the communities they serve, as well as injuries and fatalities.

The Center for Surface Transportation Testing and Academic Research (C-STTAR), a consortium of universities and academic research centers affiliated with the USDOT Transportation Technology Center (TTC) has established the Climate Change and Extreme Events Training and Research (CCEETR) Program led by San José State University Research Foundation through the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) and includes key partners at Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSU-P), Michigan State University (MSU), Northeastern University (NU), Oregon State University (OSU), and University of Hawaii (UH).

Through CCEETR five major research project will be undertaken. They are as follows:

1. Pilot Study for the Detection and Prediction of Climate and Extreme Events over the North American Rail Network using Multimodal Sensor Fusion (Lead – Michigan State University) 

2. Climate Resilience Extreme Events Portal (Lead – University of Hawai’i)

3. Planning, Training and Exercising for Crisis Events on the Railroad (Lead – MTI) 

4. Planning for Sustainable and Resilient Rail and Freight: Developing a Novel Tool for Analysis of Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategies in State and Regional Rail and Freight Plans (Lead – Northeastern University)

5. Risk and Resilience of Railway Infrastructure (Lead – Oregon State University)