Resilience Integrated Action Team
"The MTS Resilience IAT (RIAT) was established to focus on cross-Federal agency knowledge co-production and governance in order to incorporate the concepts of resilience into the operation and management of the U.S. Marine Transportation System. For the purposes of this team, resilience is defined as the ability to prepare and plan for, resist, recover from, and more successfully adapt to the impacts of adverse events." from Presidential Policy Directive 21: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience

 

The Marine Transportation System cycle

 

The Marine Transportation System operates within multiple other systems that include ecology, the community, and water resource management, each of which can impact the resiliency of the MTS. (Credit K. Chambers/USACE)
 

Value

The RIAT seeks to affect future resilience policy and aid in delivering enhanced resilience programs through identifying, coordinating, and leveraging complementary Federal investments and activities related to MTS resilience.

Integrated Action Team Leads

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Participating Agencies

  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Federal Maritime Commission
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • U.S. Department of Commerce
    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • U.S. Department of Defense
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security
    • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
    • Federal Emergency Management Agency
    • U.S. Coast Guard
  • U.S. Department of the Interior
    • Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
    • Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
  • U.S. Department of Transportation
    • Bureau of Transportation Statistics
    • Federal Aviation Administration
    • Federal Highway Administration
    • Office of the Secretary of Transportation
    • U.S. Maritime Administration

Activity and Milestones

  • November 2023: RIAT co-lead, Katherine Chambers, and CMTS RIAT Senior Advisor, Michelle Carns, presented at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Transportation Resilience 2023: International Conference on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Challenges. Ms. Carns presented “An Examination of Multi-Hazard Marine Transportation System Response and Recovery Operations During the 2020 Hurricane Season” and Ms. Chambers presented on the MTS Resilience Assessment Guide.
  • October 2023: CMTS Coordinating Board Chair, Nicole LeBoeuf (NOAA), introduced CMTS Work Plan item 3.1.1 – Advance Climate Resilience of U.S. Ports via Interagency and Key Industry Collaboration.
  • April 2023: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released the Marine Transportation System Resilience Assessment Guide. This is the culmination of five years of effort across a partnership that originated within the CMTS Resilience Integrated Action Team. Partners (CISA, ERDC, Vanderbilt, University of Rhode Island) gathered best practices, case studies, resources, and a framework for how to address resilience assessments. These assessments are applicable for a variety of scopes and applications across the MTS.
  • December 2020: Completed a report that incorporates impacts and observations of the 2018-2019 hurricane seasons into those from the 2017 hurricane season regarding the ways in which the MTS has become more resilient entitled "A Resilient Path Forward for the Marine Transportation System: Recommendations for Response and Recovery Operations from the 2017-2019 Hurricane Seasons".
  • October 2020: Presented a Transportation Research Board webinar on A Resilient Path Forward for the Marine Transportation System on findings from the 2017-2019 hurricane seasons.
  • July 2020: Reported to the CMTS Coordinating Board on findings on agency actions, best practices, and preliminary recommendations for MTS agencies to increase preparedness for multi-hazard scenarios.
  • November 2019: The University of Rhode Island publishes findings from contracted overarching study "Measuring Climate and Extreme Weather Vulnerability to Inform Resilience". The reports are entitled Report 1: A Pilot Study for North Atlantic Medium and High-Use Maritime Freight Notes and Report 2: Port Decision-Makers' Barriers to Climate and Extreme Weather Adaptation.
  • June 2016: Assembled and conducted a resilience panel at the 4th biennial CMTS—TRB Biennial Conference, held at the National Academy of Science, Washington, D.C.
  • May 2016: Published Journal Paper and Fact Sheet: Feedback on joint-agency (USACE-NOAA) coastal resilience workshop.

Resilience Resources

Related Files