1. A SSESSING THE V ULNERABILITY OF THE T ELECOMMUNICATIONS N ETWORK TO I MPACTS FROM C LIMATE C HANGE : F OCUS ON N EW E NGLAND T REVELYN P OTTER D R. P ATRICK H ALPIN, A DVISOR

2. Climate Change Impacts in New England  Increasing temperatures  Increasing precipitation and precipitation intensity  Increase in severe weather  Sea Level Rise

3. Wireless Communications Infrastructure Siting Overview Wikipedia Thefoa.org www.dasillc.com

4. Current Environmental Considerations in Siting  National Environmental Policy Act of 1969  FEMA and the 100 year Floodplain  Wind Zones and Building Codes

5. Potential Impacts from Climate Change  Flood Damage  Severe Weather  Hurricanes  Wind Damage  Sea Level Rise Wirelessestimator.com

6. FCC Registered Sites in Connecticut

7. Town Population Ranking Population PercentilesTowns in Connecticut 80 and above (High Capacity) Stamford, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven 60 through 80 (High Capacity) Waterbury 40 through 60 (Medium Capacity) West Hartford, Manchester, Greenwich, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, Hamden, Meriden, Bristol, New Britain

8. Priority Ranked Sites

9. Results Mapping the Vulnerabilities

10. Floodplain Mapping

11. Hurricane Inundation

12. Sea Level Rise

13. Data Availability for New England Data Category ConnecticutMaineMassachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont Digital Flood Coverage Partial CompletePartial Digital Elevation Model LIDAR-based LIDAR - partialNon-LIDARLIDARLIDAR - partial Hurricane Inundation Yes Yes (ACOE only) YesN/A Wind Speed No Yes (FEMA map)No Yes (for windpower) Yes Other Natural Disaster No Ice Storm (1998) Telecom Infrastruct ure NoUpdated 1998 NoUpdated 2007 NoUpdated 2011

14. Limitations of Existing GIS Data  Not all structures are registered with the FCC  Digital flood mapping is not available for all areas, particularly rural ones  Hurricane Inundation data not broken down into categories for all areas  Lack of LIDAR-based and local scale sea level rise mapping for many coastal areas  Lack of fine-scale GIS wind data applicable to infrastructure of this type

15. Lessons from the Past  Ice Storm of 1998  Hurricane Katrina  Hurricane Irene  Hurricane Sandy

16. Recommendations for the Future  Consider areas of current “moderate risk” like 500 year floodplains and adjacent areas when making siting decisions  Implement registration requirement for all licensed antenna sites  Avoid projected coastal inundation areas  Develop uniform regional or national data sets for vulnerability assessments

17. Questions