Creating a Resilient Port System in Texas: Assessing and Mitigating Extreme Weather Events – Final Report

Report (2022)

Authors

Kyle Bathgate The University of Texas at Austin
Jingran Sun The University of Texas at Austin
Shidong Pan The University of Texas at Austin
S. Balakrishnan The University of Texas at Austin
Zhanmin Zhang The University of Texas at Austin
Mikhael Murphy The University of Texas at Austin
Zhe Han The University of Texas at Austin
Lisa Loftus-Otway The University of Texas at Austin
Affiliation
External organisation
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Published Date

2022

Language

English

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Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

Extreme weather events may disrupt port and coastal freight operations, resulting in direct and indirect economic losses to ports, supporting infrastructure, and reliant industry systems. Therefore, understanding the existing resilience capacity of the Texas port system to extreme weather events is necessary. To accomplish this, the weather hazards present along the Texas Gulf Coast are quantified. Stakeholder workshops, surveys, and interviews inform our understanding of the current status of resilience practice in Texas ports. Frameworks for assessing the criticality, vulnerability, exposure, risk, and resilience of the Texas port system are developed. The economic impacts of port disruptions from hurricanes are quantified using input-output tables. A tool,
PortRESECO, is developed to be used by port stakeholders to assess the resilience of a port facility and view the results of the economic analysis. Finally, recommendations are made for implementation to increase the resilience of coastal freight operations in Texas.