The ASCE–NOAA Task Force on Climate Resilience in Engineering Practice

Infrastructure systems across the United States are facing increasing stress from extreme weather events, shifting climate patterns, and evolving environmental hazards. Traditional engineering design has long relied on historical data under the assumption of stationarity, that past environmental conditions provide a reliable basis for predicting future risks. Today, that assumption is no longer sufficient.

Recognizing this reality, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have entered into a formal agreement to accelerate the development of climate-smart engineering codes and standards. This collaboration aligns the nation’s leading professional engineering society with its foremost provider of climate and environmental intelligence.

As Co-Chair of the ASCE–NOAA Task Force on Climate Resilience in Engineering Practice, I am honored to help guide this important initiative.

Why This Partnership Matters

ASCE represents the global civil engineering profession and plays a central role in developing and maintaining infrastructure codes and standards. NOAA provides authoritative climate, weather, oceanic, and atmospheric data that underpin hazard assessment and environmental forecasting.

Bringing these two institutions together creates a powerful bridge between climate science and engineering practice.

Infrastructure must now be designed not only for historical extremes but for evolving risk landscapes. This includes:

• Increasing frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation
• Coastal flooding and sea-level rise
• Heat waves affecting materials and system performance
• Compound and cascading hazard events

The ASCE–NOAA partnership aims to ensure that engineering standards reflect the best available climate science while maintaining safety, reliability, and practicality.

The Role of the Task Force

The ASCE–NOAA Task Force on Climate Resilience in Engineering Practice has been established to coordinate and advance activities under this agreement. Our work focuses on several core objectives:

1. Integrating Climate Science into Engineering Design

We are working to incorporate authoritative NOAA climate data and projections into engineering frameworks used for infrastructure planning and design.

2. Advancing Risk-Informed Codes and Standards

Modern infrastructure requires approaches that explicitly address uncertainty and nonstationarity. Risk-based and reliability-informed methods are essential for updating load combinations, performance criteria, and safety margins.

3. Enhancing Infrastructure Resilience

Resilience goes beyond strength. It includes robustness, redundancy, adaptability, and recoverability. Codes and standards must evolve to reflect these broader performance objectives.

4. Strengthening Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Climate resilience is not solely an engineering challenge. It requires coordination among climate scientists, policymakers, standards developers, infrastructure owners, and regulators.

5. Supporting Education and Knowledge Transfer

Engineering education and professional development must adapt to equip current and future practitioners with the tools needed for climate-informed decision-making.

6. Making the Business Case

Designing for resilience has great economic and social implications. Making the business case is essential not only for influencing policy, but also for making projects with resilience advance and effectively compete to be shortlisted and funded for implementation.

A Shift in Engineering Paradigm

The integration of forward-looking climate intelligence into engineering practice represents a paradigm shift. Rather than relying exclusively on historical return periods, infrastructure design must increasingly consider scenario-based analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and adaptive management strategies.

This shift does not weaken engineering rigor — it strengthens it. It ensures that infrastructure investments are informed by the most current scientific understanding of hazards and long-term trends.

Looking Ahead

The ASCE–NOAA Task Force represents a strategic national effort to modernize infrastructure design principles in light of evolving environmental conditions. By accelerating the development of climate-smart codes and standards, we aim to safeguard public safety, protect critical infrastructure, and enhance long-term community resilience.

I invite colleagues in engineering, climate science, risk analysis, public policy, and infrastructure management to engage in this effort.

For additional details, please see the February 2026 ASCE-NOAA Task Force Newsletter at:
https://maestro.listserv.umd.edu/list/260223D_0/27ehqngltpdp.vib

Strengthening infrastructure resilience is not optional, it is foundational to sustainable development and national security. The ASCE–NOAA partnership is an important step toward meeting that responsibility.