The DoD manages a global real-estate portfolio with a replacement value of almost $1.2 trillion. SERDP and ESTCP focus a substantial portion of the research program on improving installation infrastructure resilience. Program investments led to the development and refinement of two key tools that installations are now required to use for planning: the DoD Climate Assessment Tool (DCAT) and the Department of Defense Regional Sea Level (DRSL) Database. DCAT contains a collection of scientific climate data to support research, analysis, and decision making about exposure to historical extreme weather and reasonably foreseeable climate effects; the DRSL Database provides future sea-level change scenarios to help installations determine floodplains and design elevations for planning activities in coastal or tidally-influenced locations. SERDP and ESTCP continue to develop region-specific tools and models that better predict climate change impacts to the natural and built infrastructure of installations, ranges, and the surrounding communities.
SERDP and ESTCP’s systems resilience investments represent the critical intersection of the built and natural infrastructure that are required to sustain the military mission.
The DoD manages approximately 28 million acres, collectively called natural infrastructure, which sustain military test and training missions worldwide. SERDP and ESTCP are funding custom solutions and focused science in areas where DoD installations are experiencing or projected to experience the greatest change.
Carbon sequestration science and technology are essential pathways to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and to mitigate the effects of climate change. SERDP and ESTCP have invested in research efforts for carbon capture and storage, including investigating the role of forests and other ecosystems in carbon storage and management.
The DoD will prioritize leveraging knowledge and actions when planning for resilience on DoD installations and ranges. SERDP and ESTCP have invested in the development of models and tools that incorporate climate data into future resilience planning processes by simulating scenarios of threats to operations under projected climate change.
The DoD’s mission relies on built and natural infrastructure that is vulnerable to rising sea levels. SERDP and ESTCP develop and demonstrate tools that examine sea-level rise in the context of impacts to DoD installations now and in the future.
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly changing landscapes on the planet and represents a key geography for DoD mission. Given the importance of both the built and natural infrastructure to DoD in Alaska, SERDP and ESTCP support infrastructure resilience and environmental research in the Arctic.
