DOI: 10.5061/dryad.s7h44j15k
title: Climate Adaptation Training Needs and Opportunities Survey Dataset

description: Climate adaptation is now a well-documented need in the transportation
 sector and there are strong conceptual frameworks for the adaptation
 process. Since climate adaptation is an emerging field, the pathways for
 developing the skills and competencies for adaptation careers are not
 well-established. This white paper assesses the workforce development
 needs and current training opportunities related to transportation-sector
 climate adaptation. To do so, training needs were examined and
 opportunities identified by state and regional transportation agencies;
 training needs of aspiring and early-career climate adaptation
 professionals were catalogued; and a scan was completed of the educational
 opportunities in climate adaptation currently offered by U.S.
 universities. There is evidence of convergence on the areas of content
 knowledge, technical expertise, and soft skills that form the core
 competencies necessary to support climate adaptation within the
 transportation sector. These core competencies are in climate science,
 adaptation strategies, communication, and selection of adaptation
 measures/decision-making under uncertainty. While these competencies need
 to be broadly distributed throughout transportation agencies, the relative
 emphasis placed on each competency will vary across agency functions and
 job responsibilities. The increased value placed on adaptation-related
 expertise by state departments of transportation and regional
 transportation agencies, as well as the emergence of new educational and
 training opportunities in climate adaptation available in higher education
 and professional organizations, is indicative of the potential for rapid
 growth in this area.Climate adaptation is now a well-documented need in
 the transportation sector and there are strong conceptual frameworks for
 the adaptation process. Since climate adaptation is an emerging field, the
 pathways for developing the skills and competencies for adaptation careers
 are not well-established. This white paper assesses the workforce
 development needs and current training opportunities related to
 transportation-sector climate adaptation. To do so, training needs were
 examined and opportunities identified by state and regional transportation
 agencies; training needs of aspiring and early-career climate adaptation
 professionals were catalogued; and a scan was completed of the educational
 opportunities in climate adaptation currently offered by U.S.
 universities. There is evidence of convergence on the areas of content
 knowledge, technical expertise, and soft skills that form the core
 competencies necessary to support climate adaptation within the
 transportation sector. These core competencies are in climate science,
 adaptation strategies, communication, and selection of adaptation
 measures/decision-making under uncertainty. While these competencies need
 to be broadly distributed throughout transportation agencies, the relative
 emphasis placed on each competency will vary across agency functions and
 job responsibilities. The increased value placed on adaptation-related
 expertise by state departments of transportation and regional
 transportation agencies, as well as the emergence of new educational and
 training opportunities in climate adaptation available in higher education
 and professional organizations, is indicative of the potential for rapid
 growth in this area.
description: The project team developed
 and administered the Climate Adaptation Training Needs and Opportunities
 Survey to assess the status of adaptation-related professional development
 at state DOTs and other transportation agencies. Survey respondents were
 asked what climate threats impacted their region and whether or not
 training opportunities related to climate and extreme weather adaptation
 were important for their agency's success. Those respondents who
 indicated that adaptation training was important for their agency's
 success were then asked which branches within their agency would benefit
 from such training opportunities, whether training was currently being
 offered to those branches, and how such training was being delivered
 (either externally or in-house at the agency) if it was it was being
 offered. The
 survey used a “snowball” recruitment method, where invitees were provided
 with an unrestricted link to the survey and encouraged to share it with
 others in their networks who were knowledgeable about climate adaptation
 efforts. Consistent with the goals of the survey, this recruitment
 strategy is intended to generate responses from professionals who are
 active in this field of work and thus potentially represent the leading
 edge in the field. The survey was developed and
 administered in LimeSurvey and was active for 3 months from mid-December
 2017 through mid-February 2018.  In total, respondents from 32
 transportation agencies completed the survey, consisting of seven
 respondents from state DOTs, 24 respondents from MPOs or Councils of
 Government (COGs), and one respondent from a port authority.
description: Full text of all questions and answers is provided in the results
 spreadsheet. No additional information is need to use this
 dataset.