Climate Change Vulnerability in the North Cascades

Transportation infrastructure is difficult to manage under current road maintenance budgets, but climate change is an added stressor to road maintenance. The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service are working together to identify transportation management strategies for 6 million acres of parks and forests in Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Complex, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Infrastructure data were gathered for these four areas, which could be useful in applying a vulnerability assessment across the entire landscape. To illustrate this potential, a vulnerability assessment was applied to North Cascades National Park Complex. The project framework considered vulnerability in its three components-exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Exposure was assessed by combining maps of transportation infrastructure with projected flood increases, hydrologic basin types, and hazardous landforms. A summary of exposure types explained ways in which infrastructure is sensitive, and adaptive capacity was explained by the design and condition of infrastructure. These measures were used on each individual road, trail, and camp in North Cascades National Park Complex to indicate the vulnerability of the park's transportation system.